Ex-doctor sentenced to 3 years for stealing from Irvine hospital
A former doctor has been sentenced to three years in jail for stealing medical supplies from an Irvine hospital where police said he posed as an employee by disguising himself in a wig and scrubs.
Roy Chiwing Lung, 48, of Aliso Viejo pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree burglary and was sentenced, according to Orange County Superior Court records.
Officers arrested Lung in August after an employee at the Kaiser Permanente hospital in Irvine noticed him taking medical equipment worth about $25,000, police said at the time.
This is not the first time Lung has been convicted of stealing from a hospital.
The California medical board revoked Lung’s physician license in 2009 partially because of his history of theft, according to public records.
Lung pleaded no contest to charges of grand theft, possession of stolen property and two counts of burglary after he was caught taking computers and other items from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center in 2004, according to the board.
The documents describe Lung wearing blue scrubs and a white doctor’s coat to blend in while he committed the crimes.
In 2008, an employee at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley found Lung eating and using a computer in a private doctors’ lounge, according to state records. Lung did not work there, but when police arrived, he told them he had been using the hospital’s showers and other amenities for years, according to public records.
“[Lung] explained that he stopped at Long Beach Memorial and Orange Coast MMC because they were on his way home and he was tired,” the medical board said. “He felt that he was entitled to use the facilities and supplies because he was a doctor.”
When questioned by staff members, Lung would identify himself as “Dr. Lin” or “Dr. Lee”, according to authorities.
“[Lung] also admitted that he had taken two to six boxes of sutures from Orange Coast MMC, which he used in other facilities or sold,” according to the medical board.