Lauren Burnett, Michael Hill sentenced for shopping painkiller scripts
A runway model and her teacher husband have learned their fate for illegally obtaining more than a thousand strong painkillers by shopping the scripts at several pharmacies.
The South Coast News
Don't miss out on the headlines from The South Coast News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
For almost two months their illegal collection of strong painkillers went undetected, but when police swooped on their Culburra Beach home they were in hot water.
Couple Michael Hill and Lauren Burnett had been shopping painkiller scripts for Endone and Targin, collecting more than 1000 pills from a string of pharmacies throughout the northern Shoalhaven.
According to police facts, Hill attended the Berry Post Office several times to fax a copy of legitimate scripts to pharmacies in Nowra and Culburra Beach between July and August last year.
On multiple occasions, Burnett followed the fax trail, filling the scripts at the chemists and taking the drugs home to the couple’s Culburra Beach house, which was raided by police in November 2020.
Hill did also complete collections on his own, requesting the post office fax the same script to several different chemists, before following his own tracks to pick up painkillers.
During the raid on their home, police allegedly located and seized medical documents, scripts, prescription medication and prescription medication packaging with the couple’s names on the box, and clothing seen on Hill and Burnett in CCTV from inside a host of pharmacies.
The scene was a far cry from the New York catwalks walked by Burnett, who boasts a colourful modelling career, having been the second plus size model to ever feature on a Vogue cover.
Now boasting an online profile labelling herself a plus size model, she works for the likes of Big W, lingerie brand Naked Curve, MB Active by Michelle Bridges and in June walked the Australian Fashion Week catwalk for fashion designer Alexander Lyon.
Meanwhile, Hill hasn’t worked in the classroom for sometime, with police facts stating he is on workers compensation.
According to police facts, after the pair collected the pills from pharmacies, the chemists would mark the scripts as ‘owing’, awaiting the original script to be posted or personally delivered, but on several occasions it never arrived.
Once the original is lodged, it is listed as cancelled and cannot be filled repeatedly. The couple bypassed this by not presenting the originals, and continuing to fax scripts from the post office to several different pharmacies in the northern Shoalhaven.
“Ordinarily, further prescriptions cannot be filled to that person by the pharmacy until the original document is received for the outstanding owing,” court documents said.
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been some leniency to the regulations by all medical practitioners in the fulfilment of prescriptions.”
There is no suggestion the doctors who wrote the scripts, or the pharmacies who filled them knew about the illegal activity at the time.
Burnett was legitimately prescribed 80 tablets of Endone between August 13 and August 21 last year but obtained 400 tablets from different pharmacies throughout the northern Shoalhaven.
Between July 30 and August 21, she was prescribed 56 tablets of Targin, but quadrupled the prescription and gained access to 224 tablets of the painkiller.
Hill secured 540 Endone tablets after being prescribed 220 Endone tablets from several doctors between July 30 and August 28.
He also obtained 252 tablets of Targin between July 15 and August 28, after being prescribed 56 tablets.
Both painkillers are listed as Schedule 1 drugs under the Drugs Misuse Trafficking Act, and are prescribed only to patients recovering from surgery or in chronic pain. Repeat prescriptions cannot be written.
Police documents reveal the parents’ total haul was 940 tablets of Endone and 476 Targin pills.
Hill pleaded guilty to eight charges of assisting and abetting an offence to obtain prohibited drugs and nine charges of obtaining a prohibited drug by false representation, while Burnett admitted to 10 charges of obtaining a prohibited drug by false representation.
Both were sentenced to a two-year conditional release order starting on October 6, 2021, without conviction.
The pair cannot commit any offence while subject to the order, or could be resentenced for the offences.
$20m health facility for town set to lose emergency department
New designs for a major health precinct in a south coast town set to lose its only emergency department have been revealed.
‘Our future Olympians’: Schoolgirl rugby sensations on special mission
They are small but mighty - a group of schoolgirls aiming to be at the LA and Brisbane Olympics on a rugby sevens mission. Australian schoolgirls players to watch, new squad.