A radiologist who fled a child sex predator charge in the US and who has been working in Australia since 2009 has agreed not to practise medicine until the authority responsible for regulating health practitioners has investigated him.
On Monday the Medical Board of Australia began an “immediate action process” against Max Mehta, who changed his name by deed poll to Robert Taylor in 2007 and has been practising under that name ever since.
An immediate action is a serious step only taken when the conduct or performance of a practitioner is deemed to pose a serious risk, when a practitioner’s registration is found to have been improperly obtained, or when a practitioner’s registration is cancelled or suspended in another jurisdiction.
On Friday, Guardian Australia revealed Mehta, 45, was charged in Dallas, Texas, in May 2004 for allegedly grooming a 15-year-old deaf girl – actually a police officer posing as a child – for sex in an online chatroom.
He was arrested when he arrived at an address he believed to be the girl’s home, but skipped bail of US$100,000 and absconded to New Zealand in 2005 before he could face court.
Mehta moved to Australia on a Trans-Tasman New Zealand visa in 2009 and worked as a radiologist in Western Australia, NSW, and since November last year, Shepparton, Victoria.
The warrant for his arrest in the US remains active and the United States Marshals Service for the Northern District of Texas has sought an international arrest warrant so Mehta can be apprehended and extradited for criminal prosecution.
Mehta never disclosed his name change or the outstanding US criminal charge when applying for work in Australia. Because he never faced court, the charge had not been recorded on his official documents.
Despite the outstanding charge being reported to state and federal police, politicians and medical authorities, no action in relation to that was taken against Mehta until last week, when Echuca Regional Health ordered that Mehta no longer work for them.
As of next year, new requirements will come into force so that practitioners qualified overseas will have to meet the same criminal history check standards demanded of health practitioners in Australia. Mehta was only required to sign a statutory declaration declaring he was not facing or convicted of any criminal charges.
In January last year, Mehta was found to have forged signatures on multiple medical certification documents. He was ordered to complete a six-hour ethics course.
The outcome of the immediate action process is pending.
