Pharmacist jailed for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme fraud of $110,000

Publisher
Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions
Date published
February 2024

Relevant impacts: Human impact, Financial impact, Business impact

A Melbourne pharmacist has been sentenced to 2 years in jail after an investigation into allegations of fraud proved he had defrauded the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) of roughly $110,000 between 18 August 2019 and 20 September 2019. 

Carson Au submitted 76 false PBS claims, using his position as an approved pharmacist and ‘intimate knowledge of the PBS claim system’ to make fraudulent claims. Of these claims, 71 used the prescriber details of 9 medical practitioners and the personal details of 9 friends and family members without their knowledge, and 5 were made in the names of family members.

Mr Au’s offences came to light when a supplier of pharmaceutical products that were the subject of his claims notified the Commonwealth through an online Department of Health and Aged Care tip-off form. Mr Au cooperated with the investigation, and plead guilty to Obtaining a Financial Advantage by Deception at the earliest opportunity. 

On 2 February 2023, he was sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment with 8 months to be served in custody before being released on a $5,000 good behaviour bond for 2 years.

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Related fraudster personas

The Concealer

The Concealer hides their actions from being seen or known about to dishonestly gain personal benefits.

The Exploiter

The Exploiter uses something for a wrongful purpose to dishonestly gain personal benefits.

The Impersonator

The Impersonator pretends they are another person or entity to dishonestly gain personal benefits.

The Deceiver

The Deceiver makes others believe something that is not true to dishonestly gain personal benefits.

Related countermeasures

Confirm identity

Confirm the identity or attribute of the individual. Evidence of identity should be collected and verified using policies, rules, processes and systems to make sure only known, authorised identities can gain access to information stored in networks and systems.

Verify information

Verify any requests or claim information you receive with an independent and credible source.

Unique identifiers

Create and use unique and random identifiers to avoid misuse, such as: unique and random account numbers, claim references or asset numbers.

Prevent duplicates

Have processes in place to prevent, identify and correct duplicate records, identities, requests or claims.

Incident reporting

Report on incidents or breaches to help identify if further investigation is required. Clients, public officials or contractors can take advantage of a lack of reporting and transparency to commit fraud, act corruptly and avoid exposure.

Complaints handling

Allow clients, staff and third parties to lodge complaints about actions or decisions they disagree with. This may identify fraud or corruption as a cause for complaints, such as a failure to receive an expected payment.

Investigate fraud

 Investigate fraud in line with the Australian Government Investigation Standards (AGIS).

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