Former Latrobe Community Health Service nurse Sonja Spehar burgled patients’ homes for drugs

A Gippsland nurse slyly plotted burglaries at seriously ill patients’ homes — including on Christmas Day — to pilfer their fentanyl, oxy and morphine stocks.

A former Gippsland nurse knocked over seriously ill and dying patients’ homes to steal powerful painkiller medication, including a brazen Christmas Day break-in.

Ex Latrobe Community Health Services nurse Sonja Spehar plotted her burglaries to feed her degenerate drug addiction, VCAT was told on Thursday.

Spehar accessed the personal information of 11 palliative care patients via internal LCHS systems between August 2018 and March 2019.

The tribunal heard Spehar gleaned the information which enabled her plot to burgle several patients’ homes and fleece their essential medication stocks.

Spehar then visited patients’ homes posing as a LCHS representative to make “inquiries” about their medication.

Spehar “excused” herself after she attended a home and realised the patient wasn’t alone, the tribunal heard.

Spehar, who stole powerful painkillers including Oxycodone, morphine and deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl from eight patients, burgled three homes.

She scoped her targets’ homes and made phone calls to make certain no one was home before pulling her score.

The drug-addled nurse also damaged some of her victims’ homes, one of which she knocked over on Christmas Day.

The crooked nurse’s caper unravelled after a family member of a victim raised “concerns” to Latrobe Community Health Services in February 2019.

Spehar was stood down pending an investigation after an internal LCHS audit revealed a nurse had accessed patient files.

Police arrested, charged and bailed the drug fiend nurse on March 25, 2019.

However, Spehar thieved fentanyl from a further three patients after her arrest.

Police caught Spehar with multiple fentanyl patches on her body after arresting her again on March 30.

Spehar, who pleaded guilty to theft and burglary charges, quit LCHS in April 2019 after almost 20 years of service.

The tribunal heard red lights regarding Spehar’s work behaviour were raised before her criminality was exposed.

A Latrobe Community Health Services letter to Spehar outlined the nurse had been “erratic”, unable to sit still and talked over clients while at work.

Spehar also requested a LCHS staff member take her 50 minutes out of the way to collect medication from her home.

Caitlin Dwyer, for the Nursing and Midwifery Board, submitted Spehar’s offending was “particularly egregious”.

“The instances of burglary … involved damage of property and the invasion of LCHS patients homes … where they are entitled to feel safe,” Ms Dwyer said.

“(The) conduct was sustained over a period of seven months and numerous instances of criminality.

“(The) conduct was persistent in the face of detection (and) continued after she was stood down from her employment and after she was granted bail …

“The first charge of burglary involved damaging property in order to burgle and steal on Christmas Day.

“The offences were premeditated and sophisticated (Spehar) used her position as a nurse to access information which allowed her to target the palliative care patients.”

Ms Dwyer also submitted there was “no more relevant” information to suggest Spehar was currently “drug free”.

“That really relates to the absence of a positive mitigating factor that would persuade the tribunal to impose a lesser, rather than a lengthier period of disqualification,” Ms Dwyer said.

David O’Callaghan QC, for Spehar, said his client had been a nurse for more than 30 years before the “notorious conduct” commenced.

“She enjoyed being a nurse immensely and it was part of her identity,” Mr O’Callaghan said. “It was a job she loved doing.”

Spehar, currently unemployed, has been suspended from nursing since 2019.

The tribunal, which found Spehar committed professional misconduct, will deliver its penalty at a later date.

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