UK: Solicitor struck off for impersonating friend to secure NHS prescriptions
Janine Wilkinson pleaded guilty in 2021 to one charge of fraud by false representation and was sentenced to a 12-month community order.
A solicitor who impersonated her friend to get prescriptions for sleeping tablets and painkillers has been struck off the roll. Janine Wilkinson pleaded guilty in 2021 to one charge of fraud by false representation and was sentenced to a 12-month community order.
Wilkinson, admitted in 2009, and agreed with the Solicitors Regulation Authority to being struck off and the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal imposed the sanction in December.
The tribunal heard that Wilkinson, then an assistant solicitor with south Wales firm Red Kite Law, had begun falsely using the identity of her friend, Catherine Harries, in April 2020 to obtain GP appointments and request prescriptions.
In September 2020, she sent Harries a WhatsApp message which said: ‘I’m sorry for taking tablets out in your name, I was desperate and in pain. I promise I will never do it again.’
An investigation was launched which found that she had secured 12 prescriptions of Co-codamol and three prescriptions of Zopliclone, creating a loss of £77.42 to the NHS.
During her court appearance, Wilkinson’s lawyer said she had been suffering pain for injuries received in a car crash and had been a ‘workaholic’ holding down a job while home-schooling during the lockdown.
In mitigation to the tribunal, she said her conduct in no way impacted on her work as a solicitor and did not affect her clients or the firm. She had resigned from her job before court proceedings commenced.
The tribunal noted the ‘very difficult circumstances at the time giving rise to the conviction.
The judgment added: ‘The panel had considerable sympathy with the position in which Ms Wilkinson had found herself and noted that the misconduct resulted in little, if any, financial gain and had been unrelated to her practice as a solicitor.
‘However, the tribunal could not go behind the conviction and did not consider there were grounds to go behind or question her agreement to the terms of the statement of agreed facts and proposed outcome.’
Wilkinson was struck off and ordered to pay £1,038 costs.
