Pharmarcy story lands journo in court

lostexpectation

heard about this on the radio today in more detail, I saw a headline somewhere and just thought some journo had been caught popping pills but apparently this journalist had been writing a story for the Irish Mirror on how easy it is to get fake prescriptions and now is in court on criminal charges for doing just so (for her story)

she apparently scammed some prescriptions pads filled them in herself and got drugs from pharmacies and wrote the story which appeared in the sunday mirror and then police charged her with the offences....

hopefully she'll not got anything more then a slap on the wrist but silly woman

seamus

Serves her right. It's one step away from entrapment tbh, which is only carried out by lowest form of scumbag journo.

I hope she gets a significant fine and some short jail time.

Turner

What an eejit.

I know she is young but does she not have supervisors to keep an eye on her.

The law is the law.

flogen

I always take interest with these kinds of stories;

In England we always see stories about NOTW staff gettings jobs in Buckingham Palace, or people getting into Sandhurst with a mock bomb, or people getting on planes with shoe bombs etc. etc.; sometimes they're caught but never charged. Surely it's illegal to lie on a job application, and it's illegal to carry replica weapons/explosives...
The Sun or NOTW the other day had a piece about buying drugs in a pub that Prince William drinks in; don't get me wrong, it's a stupid, stupid story, but they also committed a crime.

Are minor crimes usually overlooked if its a journo working in the public interest? How did she get the precription pads?

I think in some extreme cases it's right for journalists to break minor laws to highlight problems; while it's tabloid to the core it was important of the NOTW to show how lax Royal security is, terrorists wouldn't have an issue with breaking the law to get as close as they did.
Obviously I'm not condoning serious crimes... it's not like I think a journalist should write a piece on how easy it is to cover up a murder

lostexpectation

well the sunday mirror is a tabloid but this story doesn't go to to barrell scrapping of these royals stories (somebody got caught trying to get a job in the palace again a couple of months ago)


this story could be in the public interest but she could have been just trying to make a name for herself?

*i think* she just sent a fax with headed notepaper from a medical supplies company to a printer co. and then picked up the pads later, and then got drugs from the several pharmacies by writting her own prescriptions.. so number of offences, there 5 i think.


I wonder if she was going to daub in the pharmacy owners?

Hobart

The laughable thing about this is that I believe that she has pleaded not guilty!! Bit of a paradox she might find herself in. As for the ponits you raise Flogen, I'm not sure TBH. I think if you lie on your CV to get a job in a Government Dept., it may be an offence, otherwise it's a kinda buyer beware situation for employeers.

I honestly don't know about replica weapons, but I think I heard something about the police having to prove intent, before you can be charged.

As for the Drugs thing etc.. The Police tend to rely on the press quite a bit, and vice-a-versa, so the odd "expose" about being able to buy a spliff in the Geroge and Dragon in Sandhurst or Oxford, will usually get over looked as the Police may deem it to be "in the Public interest".

Nobody is exempt from the law though, including the Law makers, enforcerors and reporters. A Guard breaking a red light, is technically breaking the law. Even if he has his siren blaring and blue lights flashing. It is only at the discretion of the Judge (or the DPP) that these charges can be overlooked on the grounds that the Guard may have been atempting to attend an emergency. At least that's my interpretation of it.

flogen

Hobart wrote:

Nobody is exempt from the law though, including the Law makers, enforcerors and reporters. A Guard breaking a red light, is technically breaking the law. Even if he has his siren blaring and blue lights flashing. It is only at the discretion of the Judge (or the DPP) that these charges can be overlooked on the grounds that the Guard may have been atempting to attend an emergency. At least that's my interpretation of it.

That's how I understand it also.
Coincidently; this story was doing the rounds yesterday.
It looks like he's going to be charged or at least put before a court; the Mirror's defence is that the reporter was "engaged in a legitimate journalistic enterprise" which probably means nothing in legal terms but is another way of saying what they were doing was in the public interest and not intended in a sinister way.

flogen

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0216/mcelroyn.html

A Sunday Mirror journalist who has been acquitted by the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of forging prescriptions has said she is 'incredibly relieved it is all over'.

Naomi McElroy, from Grove Park Drive in Glasnevin, had pleaded not guilty to ten counts of forging and presenting the prescriptions in five Dublin pharmacies.

This evening, on the third day of the trial, she was acquitted by direction of the trial judge following legal argument.

She seemed to get off on the fact that she did not actually forge anyone's signature or try to pretend to be someone else; but that she got her prescriptions by just putting down a squiggle instead of a name; very technical.

Perhaps that's why she pleaded not guilty, Hobart. She's even quoted as saying she did not realise she was committing a crime...

lostexpectation

on R%J yesterday a journo got a certificate to do botox by turning up at one day training course pretending to be a doctor (no-one checked), she even got some botox? sent to her home, I don't know how toxic that stuff is but is probably illegal to have it even in small quantities.

flogen

lostexpectation wrote:

on R%J yesterday a journo got a certificate to do botox by turning up at one day training course pretending to be a doctor (no-one checked), she even got some botox? sent to her home, I don't know how toxic that stuff is but is probably illegal to have it even in small quantities.

I don't think the issue is how toxic it is, it's the fact that anyone, according to your story, would be able to act as a licenced botox seller/administrator after a 1 day training course with no past medical experience.
Where was this story, by the way?

lostexpectation

richard and judy, well, the main part of the story is that they didn't check she was a doctor, she said she found numerous courses listed online for one day botox training, the company replied that it doesn't advertise to the public, she went looking for it, but still no checks.


actually i remember now that the company that sent her the botox sacked the guy who sent it to her without checking, they took it very seriously.

flogen

Is it not ok to self-administer botox, or is that just America?
You know all that botox party **** you hear about...

ronbyrne2005

i'd have little sympathy for her if she had been jailed.everyone knows that if people want to get their hands on prescription drugs they will either through forgeries or buying them on the street,it was just sensationalist journalism that didnt expose anything and stated the obvious,little can be done to stop forgeries when pharmacists dont personally know doctors signature etc.