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A Melbourne doctor has avoided prison despite fraudulently obtaining more than $318,000 by lodging false Medicare claims on behalf of hundreds of patients he never treated.

Dr Sam Beitner faced the County Court on Tuesday, after pleading guilty to two counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage from the Commonwealth.

The 78-year-old used the private Medicare details of 330 patients that he had obtained while employed as a general practitioner at several clinics across Melbourne, including St Kilda Super Clinic, Greenvale Medical Centre and Mill Park Super Clinic.

Beitner then made a series of false Medicare claims between 2011 and 2016 that he had provided more than 5000 medical services from his private home in Kew and a derelict office building in Melbourne’s CBD.

He also made several fraudulent claims while travelling overseas or in hospital, according to court documents provided to this masthead.

Dr Sam Beitner.

“Sums of money were deposited into the offender’s bank accounts, sums were then contemporaneously withdrawn from ATMs at or near Crown casino at times when the offender’s Crown casino loyalty card was also in use,” according to the prosecution summary.

However, the court was told that Beitner had never been a gambler and that a relative had accessed the accounts.

County Court judge Michael O’Connell acknowledged that Commonwealth prosecutors had sought a custodial sentence.

“It was submitted that as a medical practitioner, you were in a position of trust having been given a provider number and access to the online claim system. You exploited that system, it was submitted, by utilising the medicare details of 330 legitimate patients so as to minimise the risk of detection,” O’Connell said.

But O’Connell also said he was “confronted by a constellation of mitigating factors”, including Beitner’s advanced age and serious health issues. Beitner had also already repaid $318,435 to the Commonwealth.

O’Connell sentenced Beitner to three years in prison, which was fully suspended, meaning he won’t spend any time behind bars, on the condition of an 18-month good behaviour bond.

Records kept by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency reveal that Beitner’s registration as a medical practitioner only lapsed last month and there were no conditions placed on his registration, despite being charged in 2018.

A series of reports by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the ABC’s 7.30 last year uncovered flaws in Medicare’s system that make it easy to rort and almost impossible to detect fraud, overservicing and errors. The reports revealed billions of dollars were being fraudulently obtained each year, including by billing dead people and falsifying patient records.

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