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Convicted pharmacist (middle): »Two deadly sins«
Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand / dpa
She forged prescriptions worth more than half a million euros - and was found out: A pharmacist from Swabia has to go to prison for three years for the fraud.
The 53-year-old admitted in the trial at the Augsburg district court that she had issued 39 prescriptions herself, mainly for a very expensive psoriasis drug, and had thus damaged a statutory health insurance company.
A judgment against the woman that was announced just a few months ago is also included in the prison sentence.
The Neu-Ulm pharmacist had sold prescription painkillers illegally and had already been convicted by the district court.
Presiding judge Peter Grünes said in the verdict on Monday that the woman had committed "two deadly sins as a pharmacist" - selling medicines without a prescription and exploiting the billing system.
Like the public prosecutor's office, he emphasized that the accused abused the trust in the correct work of the pharmacist.
In her plea, the prosecutor said that the health system would no longer work if the health insurance companies checked all the prescriptions submitted.
Only spot checks could be made.
In order to falsify the prescriptions, the pharmacist manipulated blank prescriptions from her husband, who is a dentist, for about two years without his knowledge.
The fraud was then noticed by the health insurance company, because dentists usually do not prescribe any special medicine for skin diseases.
The cash register had previously paid out around 517,000 euros.
“In the end, her behavior was amateurish,” said the judge—a dentist and psoriasis medication didn't mix.
The court credited the accused with confessing early in the investigation.
She is also trying to repair the damage.
About half of the money has already been paid.
The other half is to come in through the sale of the woman's pharmacy.
The 53-year-old has already returned her license to practice as a pharmacist.
A possible professional ban therefore played no role in the process.
The verdict is not yet legally binding.
The Nuremberg Public Prosecutor's Office, the central Bavarian investigative authority for fraud in the healthcare sector, wanted to keep open a possible revision.
The prosecutor had asked for four and a half years in prison, the defense attorneys half that long.
kha/dpa/AFP