VCAT adds further punishment to former Colac pharmacist Elizabeth Yau

A former Colac pharmacist caught running a meth lab and defrauding the government has had her professional ban extended beyond what regulators requested.

Elizabeth Yau was caught with materials used to manufacture methamphetamine. Picture: Facebook

A former Colac pharmacist who was busted for cooking meth — as well as defrauding the government out of $550,000 — has had an extra year whacked onto her ban after a tribunal found she had not been punished enough.

The Pharmacy Board of Australia got more than it bargained for when the four year disqualification it sought for convicted pharmacist Elizabeth Yau, 40, turned into a five-year ban by VCAT this month.

It comes after Yau was sentenced to three months behind bars at the County Court 2023 for possessing materials for the purpose of trafficking meth after police discovered her drug lab during a raid — as part of an unrelated investigation — in October 2020.

As well as finding drug equipment police also found a bottle of stimulant drug dexamphetamine that had been taken from the pharmacy where she worked.

To achieve this, a tribunal transcript revealed she fudged pharmacy records by recording the drug as being “out of date” before taking it home.

Her rap sheet also includes pocketing $550,000 from 101 fraudulent claims made to the State Revenue Office and Queensland’s Department of Employment between 2016-17.

She has since repaid all the money.

Moreover Yau did not notify the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency that she had been charged with criminal offences within seven days.

In 2018 she was also charged for giving a false name to police after she was pulled over while driving on Heatherton Rd, Springvale.

She had been a registered pharmacist since 2008.

At a tribunal hearing earlier this month Yau admitted the allegations against her and did not contest the ban sought by the pharmacy board.

But the panel of three VCAT members was “not satisfied” a four year ban was sufficient, despite Yau acknowledging it would “possibly not (be) worthwhile” to reapply for her registration once the time lapsed.

“A longer than four years disqualification period was necessary and appropriate, in our view,” the panel said.

“We imposed a disqualification period of five years. We recognise that, taking into account the years her registration has been suspended, a disqualification of five years may make it difficult if not impossible for Ms Yau to return to the profession.”

The tribunal found that Yau had “accepted responsibility for the offending and expressed remorse”.

Originally published as VCAT adds further punishment to former Colac pharmacist Elizabeth Yau