TORONTO

TORONTO - The young woman who reported a naturopath now accused of tricking patients with bogus credentials, phony blood tests and fake X-rays says she knew something was amiss as soon as she walked in the clinic.

“The office was dirty and had wires hanging down,” the woman, who asked not to be identified, said Saturday, recalling her recent appointment at Toronto Alternative Medical Practice on the Danforth.

“My gut was telling me something was off with this guy,” she said of operator Dennis Robinson. “He wasn’t making eye contact or asking the right questions.

“I should have walked out.”

But Robinson, 67, came highly recommended.

“My iron levels have been a little off the last few years and I thought I’d try to get it under control naturally,” she said, explaining a colleague told her Robinson would do “comprehensive blood work” and get to the bottom of it.

Setting aside her reservations, she followed Robinson into an exam room, laid down on a table and let him poke her with what he allegedly described as “a special needle.”

She glanced down at one point while her blood was supposedly being drawn and saw what appeared to be two vials of blood.

“It seemed real,” she said.

The woman was allegedly charged $50 and told her blood would go to an Arizona lab for testing.

“He gave me a receipt that seemed legit,” she said. “He even told me I could claim it with my insurance.”

A couple of weeks later, when she received the results of her blood work via e-mail, alarm bells went off.

“My iron was 22, which was bizarre because I had it checked two months earlier and it was 9,” the woman said. “There’s no way my iron level could have changed that much.”

She called Fry Laboratories in Scottsdale, Ariz., which was printed at the top of her 28-page blood report, and learned the lab had never done work for Robinson or his clinic.

Then she checked into Robinson’s naturopath and osteopath credentials and discovered everything appeared to be fake.

That’s when she notified Toronto Police.

Robinson was arrested Wednesday on two counts each of fraud under $5,000 and assault. He was to appear in court Thursday.

Det. Gail Regan, of the financial crimes unit, alleges Robinson has only a high school education and no medical training.

She claims Robinson’s blood tests, like his credentials, were also faked and he never actually drew blood from patients.

None of the allegations against Robinson have been proven in court.

Meanwhile, the woman who blew the whistle on him is concerned the needle she was pricked with may have been used on other patients.

So she went to her family doctor to be tested for HIV and hepatitis.

Her ordeal, however, hasn’t turned her off of naturopathy.

“I’d still go to naturopath again, but I would check their credentials first,” she said.

chris.doucette@sunmedia.ca