OSAKA (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police have served a fresh arrest warrant on a 39-year-old former doctor for allegedly breaking into his former workplace and illegally accessing electronic medical records, reports Mainichi Broadcasting System (July 16).
Keisuke Hirata, a resident of Wakayama City, is accused of trespassing and violating the Unauthorized Computer Access Law.
According to police, Hirata resigned from a hospital in Izumisano City, Osaka Prefecture, on March 9. Just days later, he allegedly managed to breach the locked facility during the early morning hours. Hospital staff caught him red-handed using a computer on the premises to sift through an electronic database containing sensitive patient information.
Upon questioning, Hirata admitted to the allegations. When asked to explain his motive for the digital intrusion, he told investigators, “I was curious about how the patients were doing.”
The suspect is already familiar to authorities. In June, Hirata was arrested for illegally practicing medicine while under a state-ordered suspension.
Between December of last year and February, the disgraced physician allegedly performed medical procedures on 95 different patients a staggering 181 times across three hospitals in Osaka and Wakayama prefectures.
