M. Parrott

A physician pleaded guilty to uttering forged prescriptions, theft of prescription forms, possession of hydromorphone for trafficking, and fraud involving the Ontario Drug Benefit Program.

The offences occurred between January 2012 and August 2014.

The accused was a family physician struggling with severe substance addiction who obtained controlled substances through forged prescriptions and fraudulently claimed reimbursement from government drug plans.

The court imposed a two-year penitentiary sentence followed by three years' probation, balancing denunciation and deterrence against rehabilitation and the accused's genuine efforts to address her addiction.

The accused was charged with having care or control of a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol and while having more than 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.

The accused was found asleep in the driver's seat of his Volvo truck tractor with the engine running at his residence.

The Crown conceded that the accused had rebutted the statutory presumption of care or control.

The court found that the Crown failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused posed a realistic risk of danger in the particular circumstances, considering that he was already home, had been in the truck for 10-15 minutes without attempting to drive it, the truck had a sleeping compartment, and he had easier means of leaving if that were his intention.

Both charges were dismissed.