A Horsley woman used forged scripts to obtain lethal amounts of highly addictive pain medication over a two week period.
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Sarah Therese Witt, 38, was sentenced in Wollongong Local Court on thirty charges of forging a prescription and inducing a pharmacist to dispense a false prescription.
On March 1, 2022 Witt began working as a medical receptionist at a doctor's surgery in Figtree.
After two hours, Witt went home sick and never returned to her job.
In those two hours, Witt stole a prescription pad belonging to the doctor she was working for.
A week later, Witt used a handwritten script to purchase a packet of 20 Oxynorm 20mg capsules. This set off two weeks of using forger prescriptions from her former workplace.
In total, Witt would use the scripts to purchase over 500 tablets of oxycodone, a pain medication drug that can be lethal and highly addictive, from two different pharmacies in Albion Park Rail, at times purchasing upwards of 40 tablets in two days.
Witt's stockpiling of pain medication would continue until March 24, when at 9.28am she attempted her ruse at a pharmacy in Albion Park.
The pharmacist there gave Witt her requested tablets, however later reviewed the script and found anomalies. The pharmacist called the doctor's surgery and discovered the script was a fraud.
That afternoon, after Witt had purchased another round of oxycodone tablets in Kanahooka, police spoke with the pharmacist in Albion Park who had discovered Witt's forgery and reviewed CCTV of the purchase where they instantly recognised Witt.
At 4pm that day, police arrived at Witt's home address and spoke with her, where she admitted to making a false script.
Police asked Witt about other scripts that were redeemed at a pharmacy in Albion Park on March 23 and she admitted that she had also made false scripts then but told police she only took a couple of pages out of a prescription pad and did not take the entire pad.
Witt also denied going to any other pharmacies and said she did not have any more Oxycotin.
Police then called an ambulance.
After further questioning, Witt admitted to having the prescription pad and gave it to police.
Witt was taken to Shellharbour Hospital by ambulance with police escort.
Upon arrival at Shellharbour Hospital, once medical staff became aware of Witt's claims of taking an entire box of Endone they told police that Witt was not telling the truth, as if she had taken that much she would be unconscious or dead.
The extend of Witt's fraud was revealed once the Department of Health provided police with a full list of the times she had used false scripts. In total, Witt had made out 14 false prescriptions in two weeks, from March 9 to March 24, prescribing herself thousands of milligrams of the drug.
The day after being discharged by medical staff at Shellharbour Hospital on March 24, Witt was back to her habits, using a fake script to purchase 20 tablets of Oxynorm from a pharmacy at Kanahooka. Police later discovered the March 25 forgery when conducting checks of the pharmacies Witt had visited.
In Wollongong Local Court on Tuesday, Magistrate Claire Girotto sentenced Witt for her offending, slapping her with a community corrections order for three years and 200 hours of community service. For the forgery on March 25, Ms Girotto sentenced Witt to a three month intensive corrections order.
The court also heard that Witt's offending extended to embezzling funds when working at a funeral parlour and using the money to buy groceries.
Witt's lawyer, Jordon Mecham said the offending was a result of a traumatic period Witt had experienced and pain she was suffering from ongoing health issues.
However Ms Girotto said Witt was unrepentant about her offending.
"She's on a bond, and very soon after the bond is given, is doing similar dishonest things."
Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14.
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