A former patient of "fake gynaecologist" Raffaele Di Paolo has told how she and her husband were desperate for a family when they went to see the alleged charlatan.
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Another former patient of Mr Di Paolo told the court she had been referred to him by chiropractor Simon Floreani, after Mr Floreani had failed to help her fall pregnant by performing chiropractic "adjustments" on her.
Mr Floreani, a past president of the Chiropractors Association of Australia, has courted controversy for promoting anti-vaccination material to patients.
Mr Di Paolo, of Kew, is accused of passing himself off as a properly registered and qualified doctor, gynaecologist and IVF specialist.
Police allege he duped women who were desperate to become mothers into paying for expensive "treatments" that were doomed to fail.
As part of those treatments, Mr Di Paolo is alleged to have placed his hand into patients' vaginas and sexually assaulted patients with internal ultrasounds.
Police claim he even sent some infertile women fake ultrasound images of foetuses, which he said were in their wombs.
It's alleged all of those women received the same images.
Mr Di Paolo is facing more than 80 charges, including multiple counts of rape, sexual penetration and fraud.
A former patient told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday that she and her husband had had confidence in Mr Di Paolo, believing him to be a medical doctor.
The woman, who cannot be named, said Mr Di Paolo told her he had previously worked in the IVF industry but had left after becoming "disillusioned with the whole IVF industry".
If she and her husband hadn't put their faith in Mr Di Paolo, she said, they might have instead gone to see an IVF specialist.
"At that time, we had to make a decision, because of my age, about whether we should do IVF," she said.
"We wanted to have a family, because I'd been pregnant and we were very disappointed to lose a pregnancy."
Between 2006 to 2015, Mr Di Paolo is alleged to have duped patients out of more than $342,000 by offering fertility treatment under the guise of being a medical practitioner.
At the time of his arrest in September 2015, Mr Di Paulo had been operating in Brighton and St Kilda for more than a decade.
During that time, he allegedly charged up to $40,000 for the treatments he administered, often to desperate women who had failed to fall pregnant using normal IVF treatments.
Another former patient, who was referred by Mr Floreani, said Di Paolo had told her he previously worked at Monash IVF Australia.
The woman, who sought Di Paolo's help to fall pregnant when she was in her mid-40s, said he told her he had a medical background, and was using homeopathy to help treat her infertility.
The woman said she became suspicious of Di Paolo's qualifications when she did not get her period, and he told her she must be pregnant.
However, when she asked him for a referral to get an ultrasound, he told her he was unable to do so, and she would need to visit her GP.
Her GP found she was not pregnant.
The committal hearing continues on Thursday.
With Liam Mannix and AAP
