A Newcastle woman armed only with a family member's name, date of birth and Medicare number was able to convince doctors at 20 Hunter and Central Coast medical centres to prescribe her opioids to feed her 100 pill-a-day painkiller addiction, court documents reveal.
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And after she was charged with 40 counts of fraud, Madison Whale, now 27, used a forged prescription to hoodwink pharmacists at 15 chemists to give her more than 1000 antidepressants, nausea medication tablets and prescription painkillers in less than two weeks.
The case of Whale, who has told police in NSW and Queensland that her addiction to opioids started when she was hit by a car in 2016, highlights flaws in the system and shows how disconcertingly easy it was for someone to commit identity fraud and obtain drugs of addiction on other people's medical records.
And, according to the victims of Whale's long-running scams, it shows that medical centres are unwilling to take responsibility for correctly identifying the person they are issuing a prescription to and that pharmacies seem to have little in place to quickly flag repeated suspicious behaviour. Whale has been running scams and committing frauds to obtain Endone for years. She was living in the Gold Coast in 2018 when, according to the Gold Coast Bulletin, she pretended to be her old school friends so she could scam prescription drugs to feed her then 40 pill-a-day addiction.
Whale would contact former friends from high school asking for a recommendation for a doctor. She would then call the doctor, make an appointment in the friend's name and get a prescription for painkillers.
The scam led to dozens of young women being flagged as drug seekers, the Bulletin said, with the victims fearing they would have permanent black marks against their name.
Whale pleaded guilty to 55 counts of fraud and in November, 2019, was fined $2000 and avoided a conviction. She had already moved to Newcastle to work as an office manager and had started committing frauds by the time she was sentenced.
A family member helped her out and let Whale stay with her for five months and Whale repaid her by using her name, date of birth and Medicare number, but not her Medicare card, to trick doctors across the Hunter into providing prescription painkillers.
During three months between September and November, 2019, Whale was prescribed more than 400 oxycodone hydrochloride 5mg tablets and 40 tramadol hydrochloride 50mg capsules.
The scam was pretty much always the same and Whale was prolific. Being a prescription drug fraud is a full-time job.
Whale would make a new appointment to see a doctor, providing her family member's name, date of birth and Medicare number and a fake address. During the consultation she would generally complain of an ankle injury and the doctor would usually prescribe her 20 5mg Endone tablets.
Then the next day or a few days later it was the same thing as Whale clocked up the kilometres from Hamilton, Elermore Vale, Charlestown, Warners Bay, Wallsend, Cardiff, Belmont, Merewether, Newcastle West, Jesmond, Waratah, New Lambton Heights, Glendale, Wyee and Toronto.
[Whale] told police that on some days she was taking in excess of a hundred Endone tablets and was desperately trying to wean herself off.
- Police said in court documents.
The victim only became aware of the fraudulent activity using her name when she received a phone call from a nurse consoling her about a miscarriage she had supposedly suffered. The victim immediately checked her MyGov account and noticed numerous doctor visits that she had no idea about.
In October, 2019, Whale used a different woman's name and made two appointments at a medical centre in Toronto where she wore a moon boot and was prescribed Endone. This fraud was only discovered when Whale left without paying, prompting the medical centre to call the number listed for her fake name.
One of the doctors used an online chat group for Hunter GPs to discuss the fraud and several other doctors shared a similar story about prescribing Endone to a Queensland woman wearing a moon boot.
Whale was arrested when she showed up for her third appointment and later granted bail. She was arrested again in December and charged over the family member fraud.
But then in July this year, Whale had a phone consultation with a doctor and was emailed a script for antidepressants, nausea medication and painkillers.
She would then contact pharmacies and ask to speak to the pharmacist about getting the script filled, claiming her doctor was unable to fax the script due to "technical issues". She would then forward the script to the pharmacist using her own email address, essentially using the same script repeatedly to obtain prescription drugs.
She pulled this scam off at pharmacies at Rathmines, Gosford, New Lambton, Dora Creek, Wangi, Toukley, Lake Munmorah, Long Jetty, The Entrance, Bateau Bay, Berkeley Vale and Pokolbin.
It wasn't until July 29, two weeks after she started the fraud, when she contacted the Shoal Bay Pharmacy to get her script filled that she was caught out.
The pharmacist was aware of Whale after an email had been circulated to pharmacists in the Hunter warning them of her scam.
After receiving the email with the script from the doctor attached, the pharmacist contacted the doctor who confirmed the script was not a repeat and had already been used. As the pharmacist was on the phone to the doctor, Whale walked into the pharmacy, provided her details and requested her medication.
The police were called and found Whale leaving in her vehicle a short time later. She told police she had become addicted to Endone after being hit by a car and was taking more than 100 tablets a day while desperately trying to wean herself off.
Police searched her vehicle and found boxes of empty prescription medication strewn throughout.
During all of this, Whale also scammed a man out of more than $1800 by convincing him that her dog had been seriously injured in a fight with his dog.
"The information supplied to the victim from [Whale] about the dog's condition, medical treatment and associated costs is alleged to be deceiving in nature in an effort to gain a financial benefit from the victim by making him believe the dogs injuries were more significant than they were," police said in court documents.
Whale pleaded guilty this week to a string of fraud and forgery offences and will be sentenced in Newcastle Local Court next month.