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Drimoleague pharmacist pleads guilty to theft

February 13th, 2017 10:15 PM

By Southern Star Team

Christine Crowley who has pleaded guilty to fraud charges (Photo: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision)

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A Drimoleague pharmacist was remanded on bail for sentencing after she pleaded guilty to 21 counts of theft and fraud where she stole some €70,000 from the HSE in an elaborate scheme involving falsifying drug payment scheme claims at her two pharmacies in Dunmanway.

A DRIMOLEAGUE pharmacist was remanded on bail for sentencing after she pleaded guilty to 21 counts of theft and fraud where she stole some €70,000 from the HSE in an elaborate scheme involving falsifying drug payment scheme claims at her two pharmacies in Dunmanway.

Christine Crowley (72) of Main St, Drimoleague, pleaded guilty to the 21 sample counts from a total of 174 charges which followed a four-year investigation by gardai into the falsification of claims under the HSE Drug Payment Scheme/Long Term Illness Scheme.

The 21 sample charges, relating to various periods between 2004 and 2009, saw Crowley make claims totalling more than €1.1m but most of these were legitimate, with Crowley obtaining some €70,000 of this through fraudulent claims made through two pharmacies that she owned.

The State alleges, in 15 of the sample charges, that Crowley obtained the money by dishonestly inducing a HSE employee to pay over money by making fraudulent claims under the Drugs Payment Scheme/Long Term Illness Scheme at Kerr’s Pharmacy and Crowley’s Pharmacy in Dunmanway.

Crowley also pleaded guilty to six further sample charges of falsifying the patient medical records of three named patients under the Drugs Payment Scheme on various dates between January and May 2009, resulting in her obtaining over €750, in sums ranging from €97 to €189.

No details were given at Cork Circuit Criminal Court this week on the exact nature of the fraud but prosecution counsel, Alice Fawsitt SC, revealed that the €70,000 that Crowley had stolen from the HSE had been recouped once the crime had come to light.

The HSE had allowed Crowley to continue to dispense medicines from her two pharmacies but the HSE made no payments to her on subsequent claims under the Drug Payment Scheme for a period of 13 months until the stolen €70,000 had been recouped.

Defence counsel, Jim O’Mahony SC, applied for an adjournment to allow him obtain a medical report from Crowley’s GP and he told the court that her guilty pleas had saved the State the expense of a lengthy and complex trial on 174 charges involving 184 witnesses and some 1,500 exhibits.

Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin granted the application to allow the defence obtain a medical report on Crowley and he remanded her on continuing bail to appear again at Cork Circuit Criminal Court for sentence on March 3rd.

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