Convicted fraudster Morgan Reanna Ainsworth in court for obtaining prescription drugs
A former nurse has returned to a Sunshine Coast court for her dodgy scheme to obtain prescription drugs to fuel her addiction, more than five months after being sentenced for similar offences.
Sunshine Coast
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An ex-nurse previously convicted of fraud for impersonating doctors to get her hands on prescription drugs has returned to court six months later for similar lies.
Morgan Reanna Ainsworth, also known as Morgan Cahill, pleaded guilty in Maroochydore Magistrates Court on November 27, 2023 to five counts of fraud by dishonestly obtaining property.
The court was told the 31-year-old Buderim woman purchased drugs from various pharmacies on five occasions using the name of a Sunshine Coast doctor, her mother and her three-year-old son.
Magistrate Rod Madsen told the court the most serious of the offending was on August 6 where she called a pharmacy claiming to be a doctor.
Mr Madsen said she had used her own knowledge to take advantage of the system.
Court documents reveal she used identifying details of a Buderim clinic doctor to release an emergency script under her own name, and later picked up 12 tablets of Endone - containing oxycodone - and 10 tablets of Targin, which contains oxycodone-naloxone.
The doctor notified police the following day she had not prescribed the medication and on August 27, Ainsworth admitted to police that she had made the phone call.
Documents stated that on September 26 and October 2 she had used a digital script from an unknown doctor through Telehealth to buy prescription medication from a Mooloolaba pharmacy.
When she reported herself to police on November 16, Ainsworth said she put the script under her three-year-old son’s name after she had told the doctor her son had his tonsils and adenoids removed.
On another two occasions while she was an inpatient at Buderim Private Hospital, she obtained a script from an unknown Melbourne doctor through Telehealth, instead using her mother’s name and Medicare number to buy panadeine forte and oxycodone from the hospital pharmacy.
Police prosecutor James Allen said while the fraud offences did not include any scripts of high value, it evolved around issues of trust.
Ainsworth was put on probation after she was convicted in court for 21 offences of fraud in June, 2023 where she similarly impersonated doctors to obtain prescriptions.
A conviction was not recorded on that occasion.
Defence lawyer Benjamin Rynderman said Ainsworth is an “intelligent and qualified” member of the community as a nurse and she has since voluntarily suspended her medical registration.
He told the court it was clear she had an opioid addiction and had relapsed for about two months after she appeared in court earlier this year.
Mr Rynderman said she had checked herself into rehabilitation and recently had surgery to help mend a back injury, which had induced the pain medication addiction.
Ainsworth was previously employed at various medical establishments on the Sunshine Coast including Maroochydore Doctors at Sunshine Plaza, Nambour Family Clinic and St Vincent Care Services, the court heard.
Ainsworth was sentenced to four months’ prison wholly suspended for 12 months and a conviction was recorded.
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