€150k seized in probe into €3.5m drug fraud
THE Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) has seized €150,000 in cash during a search operation, prompted by a Garda investigation focusing on fraudulent claims worth more than €3.5m under the drugrefund scheme.
The Garda probe led to a 72-year-old pharmacist being sentenced last year to two-anda-half years in prison, with the final two years suspended.
Christine Crowley (72), of Main Street, Drimoleague, Co Cork, pleaded guilty to 21 counts of theft and fraud involving around €70,000 from the HSE by falsifying drug-payment claims.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin told Cork Circuit Court in April last year he was suspending the final two years of the sentence in light of Ms Crowley’s age and her relatively poor health, as well as her previous good character and unlikelihood of re-offending.
The judge said Ms Crowley was a qualified pharmacist, who used her expertise and familiarity with the HSE drug-payment scheme to set up an elaborate fraud solely for her own financial gain.
He said there was no doubt that the criminality was “egregious”.
Backed up by local gardaí yesterday, members of the Cab
searched a house in west Cork and two business premises in Cork city.
The Cab said its inquiries followed what it described as an extensive Garda fraud investigation into claims in excess of €3.5m under the drug-refund scheme.
Officers seized €150,000 in cash, including euro, sterling, dollars and other currencies along with a quantity of gold and silver coins, including South African krugerrand.
Further searches are being carried out in a number of safes and a quantity of documents, including title deeds for properties, and computers are also being examined.
Cab said its inquiries were continuing, but no arrests had been made at this stage.
At the end of the court case last year, Judge Ó Donnabháin said that among the aggravating factors were the level of criminality involved, the amount of money involved and the fact that it went on for several years.
He said that Ms Crowley had failed to provide any co-operation to gardaí, even when it was inevitable that she was going to be caught.
But he said he accepted she was remorseful and her plea of guilty was significant.
The HSE recouped the money from Ms Crowley by stopping drug-scheme payments to her for 12 months, during which time she continued to dispense medicines on the scheme but at her own expense.