Cabbie used in elderly care scam

DOZENS of vulnerable Tasmanians in aged care received pain relief treatment from unqualified therapists in a scheme for which a suspended physio now faces a maximum fine of $480,000.

Launceston Magistrates Court yesterday heard a taxi driver, chef and accountant were among 11 fake physios employed by Libero Health Care sole director Michael Sylvester Dempsey to treat residents at 12 aged-care facilities across the state.

Dempsey, 44, of Murrumbeena, instructed the unqualified practitioners to sign documents using the names of qualified physiotherapists and occupational therapists from the mainland, only one of whom he had never met.

The court heard 78 patients, aged 67 to 99, received massage and pain relief treatment from the unqualified staff from March 1 to May 4, last year.

All the unregistered staff were migrants from India or Pakistan and many came to work for Libero at facilities run by Respect Aged Care and Southern Cross Care Tasmania in Hobart, Launceston and the North-West after chance meetings or through mutual connections with Dempsey.

The court heard some expressed concern at being asked to use other people’s names but were told they were using the names of their “supervisors”. Those who questioned whether they needed qualifications to provide treatment were told they did not because they were “support workers”.

Dempsey yesterday pleaded guilty to 16 counts of knowingly holding a person out as being registered when they were not. Charges against Libero Health Care, which is being wound up, were discontinued.

The court heard Dempsey’s scheme was exposed after a disgruntled former Libero employee, a registered chiroprac- tor, found out the real identities of the workers by entering their phone numbers into Facebook.

Libero also had 10 registered physiotherapists working for them at the time.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) began an investigation on May 7 and Dempsey stopped practising immediately after receiving a cease and desist letter from the regulator the following week.

Prosecutor Kylie Walsh said the offending was among the most serious AHPRA had investigated.

Defence barrister Simon Kelly said Dempsey had successfully run Libero for many years in Victoria but resorted to hiring unregistered workers after finding it “remarkably difficult to find qualified staff” in Tasmania.

Magistrate Ken Stanton adjourned the case until April for further submissions and sentence.