SA court told Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency has joined prosecution of Jennifer Anne Reed over deception allegations
A PEAK health industry body has filed charges against a woman who stands accused of using false qualifications to dupe nursing homes into employing her.
A PEAK health industry body has filed charges against a woman who stands accused of using false qualifications to dupe nursing homes into employing her.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency has joined the case against Jennifer Anne Reed, claiming she held herself out to be a Registered Nurse without authority.
Reed, 64, of Gawler West, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court today.
She has yet to plead to six basic counts of deception.
Court documents, viewed by The Advertiser, allege that over a four-year period, she duped six nursing homes into employing her as a Registered Nurse and a Director of Nursing.
It is further alleged she did so by using falsified qualifications.
The documents allege Reed stood to earn a salary of between $2500 and $30,000 due to her deceptive conduct.
They specify that no patients were harmed, nor placed at risk, by her alleged conduct.
Today, Reed appeared in court without her lawyer and asked the case be adjourned.
Magistrate Mary-Louise Hribal agreed, but told Reed another charge had been laid against her — that of being an unregistered health professional using a particular title.
“AHPRA has alleged that, between July 2012 and December 2014, you called yourself a Registered Nurse when you were not entitled to do so,” she said.
“That’s a separate matter to the charges you’re already facing.”
Prosecutors told the court they did not have conduct of that second file, and that AHPRA would be represented by lawyer Anthony Allen.
Ms Hribal said the files should “travel together” through the committal process.
She remanded Reed on continuing bail to answer all charges in July.
Reed declined to comment on her case outside court.
AHPRA oversees the nationwide enforcement of laws, policies and standards that all registered health practitioners must meet.
It also works with each state’s Health Complaints Commission to address community concerns about individual, registered health practitioners.