Rebecca Reid, 43, guilty of using fake medical certificates to take sick leave
All it took was a “simple photoshop job” for Rebecca Reid to be able to stay in bed instead of doing her public service job.
Canberra Star
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A Canberra public servant has admitted she took more than $9000 work of sick leave by photoshopping medical certificates so she could stay in bed instead of doing her job at the immigration department.
Rebecca Ann Reid, 43, on Thursday faced the ACT Magistrates Court where she had earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of dishonestly using a forged document.
Reid was working in human resources at the Department of Immigration Border Protection when she took dozens of sick days without a legitimate doctor’s note, instead changing the dates on an old, legitimate document on days when she didn’t feel like working.
Reid’s legal aid lawyer told the court her client’s offending had cost the taxpayer more than $9000.
But when the department sacked her, it withheld $4700 in entitlements, leaving her owing the taxpayer just over $4500.
Reid’s lawyer said her client felt overworked and would do a “simple photoshop job” each time she wanted to chuck a sickie.
“The forged certificates were based off of legitimate certificates with the dates amended,” she said.
“Most of the sick days were spent in bed.”
Reid was originally charged with 28 counts of using a forged document, but pleaded guilty to two representative counts covering all her offending.
In total, she rorted the system over six years, from 2011 to 2017.
The court heard Reid is now living with her parents and on Centrelink, and would likely struggle to get work because of her forgery convictions.
Reid planned to meet with an employment agency on Monday to find out just how much of an impact her convictions would have on her job prospects, but her lawyer said they were “invariably damaged”. Prosecutors pushed unsuccessfully for a suspended jail sentence.
Magistrate James Lawton said Reid had breached the trust of her former employer.
“The motivation for the offending appears to be Ms Reid to have been struggling with work,” he said.
Mr Lawton said Reid’s offending was “something which the court must condemn”.
Mr Lawton convicted Reid, ordered her to be of good behaviour for a year and imposed 200 hours of community work.
He also ordered Reid to repay the $4564 she still owed the government.
