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Date Published: 28/02/2023

ARCHIVED - Alicante pharmacist arrested for cloning hundreds of health cards and social security fraud

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Six other people are also under investigation in the El Comtat region of Alicante in connection with the fraudulent scam

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Alicante pharmacist arrested for cloning hundreds of health cards and social security fraud

The owner of a pharmacy in Alicante, a 39-year-old Spanish woman, has been arrested for cloning more than 500 health cards and invoicing Social Security for medication that was never dispensed.

As part of a probe by the Guardia Civil in collaboration with Spain's Department of Universal Health and Public Health, six other Spanish people aged 37 to 87 are also under investigation for their involvement in the alleged crimes of fraud against the Social Security, against public health, falsification of public documents and against privacy.

The six people are all "friends and acquaintances" of the pharmacist and five of them hold managerial positions at retirement homes. None of them have previous criminal records and their cases are being handled by the Court of Instruction in Alcoy.

Investigations began in October 2022 when members of the Pharmacy Inspection Department of the Regional Ministry noticed that a chemist in a municipality in the district of El Comtat had an "unusual trade in terms of sales of medicines" financed by the National Health System.

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An inspection was carried out and almost 3,000 boxes of medication invoiced to Social Security with a value of more than 39,000 euros, along with more than 500 cloned health cards and various medical documentation of nursing home patients were seized.

In addition, the pharmacy was stockpiling allegedly dispensed medicines with expired medication and next to chemical cleaning products, in breach of the legislation regulating their storage.

According to the Guardia Civil "with the knowledge of the five people in charge of centres for elderly or dependent people in the province of Alicante, health cards were cloned in order to carry out simulated dispensations, as they sold the medication to the cardholders at the expense of the National Health System, but the product was not delivered but put aside without its sealed voucher".

The costs were charged to the National Health System, generating illicit financial gain for the establishment, and "such was the eagerness to bill and profit", medicines were dispensed to elderly people who had no prescription for such treatment.

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Image: Guardia Civil

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