The mental health trust for Norfolk and Suffolk has introduced "extra measures" on recruiting agency staff since a bogus psychiatrist held a job there for a year.

Zholia Alemi worked at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) between April 2014 and April 2015, claiming to have a degree from the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

But a jury found her guilty of forging the certificate and letter of verification she used to register with the General Medical Council in 1995.

Alemi, who was able to practise for more than 20 years before her lie was unraveled, was convicted of 13 counts of fraud, three counts of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, two counts of forgery and two counts of using a false instrument after a four-week trial.

She was jailed for seven years.

Stuart Richardson, NSFT chief executive, said the trust adhered to all of the proper processes as it hired Alemi.

He said: "Zholia Alemi was employed by our trust as a locum (temporary) consultant for 12 months between 2014 and 2015 through a recruitment agency.

"That process adhered to all the necessary and required employment checks by the agency and by the General Medical Council - which decides whether a doctor is qualified to practise in the UK.

"The General Medical Council has since changed its processes and the checks it undertakes are now more rigorous and robust than in the 1990s when the GMC registered Zholia as a doctor.   

"As a trust, we also now take extra measures when working with recruitment agencies. We directly request the GMC make additional checks on any locums who apply to work with us who have qualifications or first registrations that are dated in the 1990s."