A man who supervised a Russian refugee accused of posing as a psychologist in Queensland says he was never concerned the man wasn’t a doctor. Vincent Victor Berg has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges including grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning bodily harm and fraud relating to incidents between May 1999 and April 2003. On the second day of Berg’s trial at Southport District Court on Wednesday, former Gold Coast Hospital head of psychiatry Leon Petchkovsky said he found Berg to be “quite credible” during his time supervising him in the late 1990s. Berg was a clinical observer in the hospital and while Mr Petchkovsky admitted there were some issues he put down to cultural and training differences, on the whole he was impressed by Berg. “I felt he was good with the patients,” Mr Petchkovsky told the court. “By and large I found him quite credible.” It’s alleged Berg used faked qualifications from Russia to convince adminstrators at Gold Coast Health in 1999 he could act as an observer. He then worked at four north Queensland hospitals where it’s alleged he prescribed medication which gave serious side effects to several patients. The court also heard from a former employee of the Russian university where Berg claims to have obtained his qualifications in 1969 to 1977. Tatiana Terekhova, speaking via an interpreter, said the specific number on graduation documents produced by Berg didn’t match up to records at the Voronezh State University.
