COLUMBIA, S.C. (WACH / AP) -- A Midlands judge has denied bond for a man authorities say stole the identity of a physician and pretended to be a doctor.
Lexington County investigators are now trying to see whether he harmed any of the hundreds of patients he treated.
Lexington County Sheriff James Metts says 48-year-old Ernest Addo of Austell, Ga., saw more than 500 patients at five facilities operated by Agape Senior Primary Care in the past year.
Authorities say Addo was returned to Lexington County from a Georgia Jail on Tuesday where he was served with additional arrest warrants tied to practicing medicine without a medical license between February 15 and August 22.
Addo was initially charged with just one count of practicing medicine without a medical license and one count of obtaining items worth more than $10,000 under false pretenses. The man, who is originally from Ghana, now faces three additional counts of practicing medicine without a medical license and one count of financial identity fraud.
Metts says detectives have documents showing Addo earned a doctor of medicine degree from Central America Health Sciences University School of Medicine in Belize in 2003. He was not licensed to practice medicine anywhere in the United States.Warrants allege Addo practiced medicine under the name of an Orangeburg physician, who is a general practitioner, after submitting false documents to Agape Senior Primary Care.
Authorities refused to release the name of the doctor who investigators say Addo impersonated. However, a friend of the man, Dr. Arthur Kennedy of Orangeburg, confirmed his identity was stolen.
In court Wednesday, a Department of Health and Environmental Control official told a judge that agency is also investigating allegations that Addo improperly prescribed controlled substances more than 200 times.
A woman who says she was treated by Addo while rehabbing from knee surgery was also at Wednesday's hearing. She chose not address the court, but after Wednesday's proceedings told WACH Fox News she was appalled to find investigators say Addo was pretending to be something he was not.
"That threw me for a real loop. It saddens me to know that people are so evil now and that they can just do what they want to do. Or think they can at least," said Fabia Hargrove. "I would hate for anyone else to go through what I've went through."
Metts says Agape Senior Primary Care is cooperating fully with the sheriff's department as they conduct the investigation. Addo quit his job with Agape on August 22.
According to Sheriff Metts, Addo received wages and other employee benefits as a physician during the time he was employed.
Addo is expected to appear in court again on November 15 at 9 a.m.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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