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A pharmacist convicted of fiddling his records to get extra money from the government has been suspended from practice.
The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal barred Mark Robert Winefield from practising for nine months, and denied his request for continued name suppression.
In 2005 Winefield pleaded guilty in Timaru District Court to 22 fraud and forgery charges, relating to a period between 2001 and 2004 at his Marchweil Pharmacy in Timaru.
Altogether, Winefield committed fraud 898 times, racking up nearly $11,000 in undue fees and subsidies from HealthPac -- the government agency which manages payments for public health services.
The court was told Winefield used a number of tricks to bring in small amounts of cash which quickly added up.
He forged patient signatures and doctors' initials on his dispensing records, to make it look like large, all-at-once prescriptions had been doled out in several smaller amounts , enabling him to claim extra dispensing fees from HealthPac.
He also dispensed 27,000 Ritalin tablets but told HealthPac it was a subsidised equivalent, Rubifen, so he could claim subsidies.
And when customers picked up their first prescription, but didn't come back for repeats, Winefield still claimed fees as though they had returned.
After being convicted he was ordered to pay $20,000 in court costs and carry out 200 hours of community service.
Winefield also paid back the $10,865.67 he had stolen.
In its decision to lift Winefield's name suppression, the tribunal said public interest outweighed the harm to his immediate family.
After his conviction Winefield left Timaru and had been practising in Porirua until now.
- NZPA
