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Woman jailed for forging prescriptions
A WOMAN, who forged prescriptions in a frantic bid to get painkillers, has been jailed for a year.
Michelle Walters, 41, of The Meadows, Foxholes, had previously admitted several counts of theft and fraud and was sentenced at Scarborough Magistrates' Court by District Judge Kitson.
The court heard of her "desperate compulsion" to obtain the drugs after years of addiction.
Nine different boxes of Dihydocodeine tablets were found at Walters' home, each box in a different name.
During November and December of last year, Walters tried to get drugs from various premises in Scarborough, Malton and Driffield.
Prosecuting, Katy Varlow said Walters went into Maltby's chemist in Aberdeen Walk, Scarborough, with a prescription for two separate drugs.
One was for Dihydrocodeine, the other was unreadable – both were falsified.
On December 3, she entered another pharmacy and asked for an emergency prescription for her terminally ill mother in France.
This was refused and the chemist informed the surgery next door.
Walters went into the surgery later, where she was seen in a doctor's office.
She appeared to put something in her pocket, and then left.
Walters later attended a doctor's surgery in Bridlington and stole a number of prescription pads when the doctor left the room.
On December 6 she used another false name to obtain Amoxicillin Metoclopramide from Malton Hospital, and then presented a prescription at Beecham pharmacy in Malton for drugs in a false name.
And on the same day Walters walked into the fracture clinic at Scarborough Hospital and into a treatment room occupied by a doctor, grabbed five blank prescription slips and ran out of the hospital.
Richard North, mitigating, said Walters had been in prison for three weeks and was getting help.
He said: "She is keen and motivated to get the help she needs for this terrible compulsion."
Walters had asked for around 20 other similar offences to be taken into account when sentencing.
District Judge Kitson sentenced her to six months for the theft and burglary to run concurrently. She was also given six months for the fraud and attempted fraud to run concurrently – making a total of 12 months.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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