UK doctor claimed innocence in note after suicide over fraud allegations

London: A GP who drowned herself in the bath after she was arrested for fraud wrote a suicide note to the coroner protesting her innocence, an inquest heard.

Dr June Shazeela Allim, 53, was found dead at her £1 million (Dh6.1 million) home on October 2 last year — just two weeks after she was arrested on suspicion of fiddling the books at her surgery.

She took a high dose of the sedative temazepam before drowning herself in the bath at her five-bedroom property in the Warwickshire village of North Lindsey.

The respected GP was found by her husband Dr Henry White. He called for an ambulance but paramedics pronounced Dr Allim dead at the scene at around 2pm. Just two weeks before her death, police officers investigating allegations of fraud raided the Budbrooke Medical Centre where the couple worked — and later decided to arrest Dr Allim.

She was released on bail but did not return to work at the surgery and spiralled into depression.

The inquest, at the Warwickshire Justice Centre, heard that before she died she penned suicide notes to her husband, her daughter Victoria, 24, and even the coroner.

The letter written to Warwickshire coroner Sean McGovern, which was read out at the hearing, said: “I am doing this of my own free will, my family are not involved.

“I need to end this misery which is destroying all of us. If I wait for years for this to be resolved I will become a broken woman.” She went on to insist: “I have no confession to make, my conscience is clear.”

Dr Allim was a trustee of the Ruwenzori Health and Education Foundation, a Ugandan-based charity that builds clinics and provides medical training for the war-torn country. Her husband Dr White, 55, fought back tears as he told the inquest about her commitment to her patients and described his wife’s torment at being arrested.

He said: “My wife had led an exemplary life and she was utterly dedicated to her work and her patients. On the day that she was arrested our surgery was searched in front of the patients.

“On that day her life was demolished and her reputation was ruined. Even though she was innocent it would have taken her years to clear her name.

“She was very traumatised, she was in a state of despair and she took her life for that reason.”

Recording a verdict of suicide, McGovern said: “This is a very sad case. It’s plain to see that Dr Allim was well respected both by the medical community and local community in general.”

And one of her neighbours said: “She was under a lot of pressure before she died.

“I still remember the day that she died and I remember seeing the ambulance on that afternoon. It is such a tragic and dreadful thing to happen to anyone, let alone a mother and a wife.

“I know she was on bail for fraud allegations, which obviously would put pressure on her. Although as she wrote at the inquest, she had a clear conscience.

“It is just such a shame that Dr White and his daughter will now have to get on with their lives without Dr Allim.”