A Tasmanian mother addicted to prescription painkillers tricked dozens of doctors by pretending to be family members and friends in an elaborate fraud that went on for more than two years.
Jemica Louise Purdon visited 51 different doctors across the state 129 times between November 2018 and April 2021.
She used the identities of eight people she knew to get her hands on opioid medications like oxycodone and tramadol.
The 35-year-old single mum of five was sentenced to six months’ in prison, wholly suspended, after pleading guilty to all 129 fraud charges in the Supreme Court this month.
The court heard Purdon’s scheme involved travelling between medical practices in Hobart, Bothwell and Launceston to get prescriptions for Schedule 4 and Schedule 8 drugs.
Each time, she collected anywhere from four to 60 tablets, then used the fraudulently obtained prescriptions at pharmacies around the state.
“It is surprising to me how easy it was for you to carry out this fraud,” Justice Kate Cuthbertson said in her passing comments.
The judge noted that five GPs “were prepared to prescribe significant amounts of opioids”, often under the same fake name, “on a reasonably frequent basis”.
She suggested it showed “a level of neglect of their statutory duties”.
By using false identities, Purdon was able to dodge Tasmania’s real-time prescription monitoring system, which is meant to help doctors check patients’ medication history.
The court heard this made it “difficult, if not impossible, for a doctor to obtain the information relevant to their compliance with the statutory duties”.
Purdon first started taking opioids in 2017 for chronic back pain caused by scoliosis. Her addiction worsened during an abusive relationship, when she used the medication to numb both physical and emotional pain.
The fraud was uncovered in November 2020, six months after she had already reached out to Tasmania’s Alcohol and Drug Service for help.
Despite the scale of the offending, Justice Cuthbertson accepted expert evidence that Purdon was at low risk of reoffending.
There was also no evidence she sold or trafficked any of the medication.
The judge warned that abusing weaknesses in the prescribing system risks tighter regulation, which could make it harder for genuine patients to access pain relief.
