Australian of the Year finalist Eman Sharobeem has broken down while giving evidence at a corruption inquiry over allegations she defrauded NSW taxpayers and made up professional qualifications to further her career.

The 54-year-old migrant women's rights campaigner burst into tears and told a corruption inquiry she could not remember lying about having two PhDs in psychology.

"My memory cannot at all remember anything," she said.

"I can't remember and I don't want to tell a lie."

Ms Sharobeem told the inquiry she was mentally and physically unwell and the hearing was adjourned for a short time to allow her to compose herself.

She was answering allegations she had falsified her education to further her career in Australia and to treat patients at a non-profit migrant women's health centre in Sydney's west.

The inquiry has previously heard she had no training in psychology and has not completed her masters degree.

Ms Sharobeem is also alleged to have used government money for personal expenses when she was in charge of the Immigrant Women's Health Service and the Non-English Speaking Housing Women's Scheme.

It is alleged she renovated her $600,000 Fairfield home that she later sold for $1.3 million, used the money to purchase her husband a luxury car, holidays and jewellery, and claimed reimbursement even when retailers had refunded the amount.

Honorary degree destroyed in fire, Sharobeem claims

Ms Sharobeem was nominated as an Australian of the Year finalist in 2015 for her campaign work. ( ABC News: Mohamed Taha )

When questioned about where she got her degrees, Ms Sharobeem said she was given one honorary doctorate from the American University in Cairo.

She said the degree was given to her by an unnamed professor and an unnamed person in human resources.

Ms Sharobeem said business cards then mysteriously turned up for her with the title of Dr Sharobeem.

There were a number of tense exchanges between Ms Sharobeem and the counsel assisting Ramesh Rajalingam, as he persisted in trying to get answers to his questions.

When the Acting ICAC Commissioner Reginald Blanch AM QC stepped in to try to clarify if there was any proof of the "honorary degree", Ms Sharobeem said there was no record of it anywhere anymore, because it was destroyed in a building fire in 2012.

Ms Sharobeem today admitted she had started various degrees in Australia but had never completed them, with the exception of a Granville TAFE course in office management.

When quizzed about a Bachelor of Commerce qualification on her passport, she said she could not remember much about that qualification including what mark she obtained.

Sharobeem's CV faked by someone else, ICAC told

Ms Sharobeem said when she first came to Australia in 1987, she had no money and was controlled by a violent and abusive first husband who gambled, kidnapped her children, and locked her up before her cousins helped her to escape.

"I was forced into sex," she said.

Ms Sharobeem was then quizzed about an entry on her CV that claimed she had written a thesis on community management.

She said the CV was fake and must have been made up by someone else.

"I don't know why this was in my personnel folder," she said.

Council assisting relied on a number of documents to support the allegations, including alleged copies of Ms Sharobeem's CV and email communications where she allegedly appeared to rely on the qualifications.

Ms Sharobeem said other people referred to her as Dr Sharobeem in Australia, but she was too modest to use the term herself.

"If you want the truth please help me," she said.

The inquiry continues.

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