A pharmacist falsifies prescriptions, the health insurance pays out around 500,000 euros. In Augsburg, the 53-year-old now has to answer for fraud and forgery. The accused has confessed, the sentence is being negotiated.
A pharmacist from Swabia is said to have falsified prescriptions worth more than half a million euros and thus damaged a health insurance company by this amount. The pharmacist is before the Augsburg district court for fraud and forgery. At the beginning of the court proceedings, the 53-year-old fully confessed to her crime. Negotiations between the parties involved in the proceedings regarding the amount of the penalty were initially unsuccessful.
The accused lives in Oberallgäu and ran a pharmacy in Neu-Ulm. She is said to have used the blank prescriptions of her husband, a dentist, for the fakes without his knowledge. With a stamp and a false signature, the woman accounted for such expensive drugs against psoriasis, syringes that cost more than 4,000 euros each. According to her own statements, she also used some preparations to treat her skin disease. Since dentists do not normally prescribe these drugs, the fake prescriptions ultimately caught the eye of the health insurance company. Before that, however, the cash register paid out around 517,000 euros.
The defender gave the economic situation of the accused as the motive for the crime. The over-indebtedness is said to have worsened in her previous branches and the pharmacist therefore filed for bankruptcy in 2014. Nevertheless, the following year she opened a new pharmacy in Neu-Ulm, which - also because of the old debts - brought in little profit. In order to plug her financial holes and to be able to continue to pay the employees, she wrote the prescriptions herself in her own name.
At the request of the woman's two lawyers, the court initially held a legal discussion behind closed doors with the prosecutor in order to possibly agree on a sentence. Against the background of the personal and economic situation of the defendants, the defense suggested a maximum prison term of two years and three months. However, the prosecution dismissed the sentence as "unrealistic".
The woman had already renounced her license to practice medicine before the court date, and her pharmacy in Neu-Ulm is now closed. Irrespective of this, a professional ban will also be examined in the process. Two more days of negotiations are planned for the trial, and a verdict could be announced next week.
