A Tasmanian woman who made more than 100 false Medicare claims while working as a medical receptionist has been sentenced to 12 months home detention.
Erin Fay Melissa Grant, 36, was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Tasmania on October 9 after pleading guilty to computer-related fraud and obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
The court heard Grant made 106 false claims while working at Bellerive Doctors between August 31, 2021 and April 14, 2022.
The claims recorded that patients had attended appointments and paid in cash.
Grant then lodged them with Medicare and had the rebates paid to her personal debit card. In total, she obtained $29,512.65.
The court heard she cancelled the false appointments to avoid detection, so the practice’s financial records stayed accurate.
The claims involved eight doctors. Some listed Grant as the patient.
A doctor noticed irregularities in consultation records in April 2022. The practice owner reported it to police.
The court heard Grant told police she had significant debts and was under stress.
She said she used the money to pay debts and fund a trip to Adelaide for her daughter’s dancing. She estimated she had taken about $10,000.
Justice Stephen Estcourt noted Grant was convicted in 2013 of stealing, forgery and other dishonesty offences involving $28,100.
Grant told a forensic psychiatrist she had no memory of the offending. She linked it to a dissociative disorder and ADHD.
The psychiatrist found her actions were more plausibly “a conscious process” than episodes of dissociation.
Estcourt said this type of offending was serious because it breached an employer’s trust. He said Grant’s prior convictions for similar offences weighed against her.
He took into account her remorse, her personal circumstances and her progress in treatment.
The court heard Grant is a single mother to a nine-year-old and is pregnant. Through her lawyer, she told the court her life was now “very different”.
Grant must wear an electronic monitor and must not drink alcohol during the order.
She also received a nine-month jail term, wholly suspended for two years.
Estcourt ordered her to repay the $29,512.65, with the terms of that order still to be set.
