Joseph Valadakis, 48, is expected to face a lengthy prison sentence after posing as the British royal family’s doctor and extracting £160,000 from his ‘patients’.
His treatments included creams consisting of snail excrement, ‘dinosaur clay’ and whale sperm that were used for massages.
Valadakis’ patients footed enormous medical bills on the presumption they were being treated by a real doctor.
His website listed all of his supposed credentials, including a PhD in quantum physics from Cambridge University and leading a team undertaking clandestine research at University College Hospital in London.
The fraudster moved to the United Kingdom from Australia in the early 1990s, and told his patients he had treated well-heeled Britons such as Theresa May, Russell Brand, Robbie Williams and Sophia Loren, after setting up the website under the pseudonym of Josef Hoffman.
His cons included convincing a father of two, Phillip Randerson, that he had pancreatic cancer. Randerson’s wife Emma said Valadakis scared them out of seeking a second opinion.
“We trusted that he was going to cure Philip of cancer,” she said in court.
“He told us we would only be paying for the products that we used. He said he didn’t charge for his time because this was a hobby to him.
“He said he was allowed to treat 10 per cent of commoners. In return we would pay two per cent of the price of the product that we used and in return we would act as research for the government.”
During proceedings Valadakis said he never presented himself as a doctor, rather a biophysicist, but a jury convicted him of two charges of fraud by misrepresentation, clearing him of one fraud offence.
He has now been remanded and is awaiting sentencing.