Harpreet Kaur, 31, pleads guilty to two charges of claiming to be a health care practitioner

A young “nurse” has told a court she didn’t intentionally provide a false registration certificate to her employer, despite buying it from an “online scammer”.

A woman who was practising as a nurse with a fake registration certificate has told a court she didn’t intentionally commit any crimes, she simply fell for an online scam.

In the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Wednesday, Harpreet Kaur, 31, confessed to two counts of claiming to be a health practitioner, but said she hadn’t intentionally misled her employer.

After giving her pleas quietly from the dock, Kaur’s lawyer flagged there would be some legal dispute because her client had no intention to give her employers a false registration document.

“I will foreshadow that there is a dispute about the basis of the guilty pleas,” Kaur’s lawyer said.

“My client says that her actions were reckless, but the prosecution are alleging that she intentionally went out of her way to pay for a bogus certificate of registration. That is what is in dispute.”

She said Kaur had accepted she would likely be fined for the offending, but took issue with prosecution’s position that she had knowingly deceived her employer by presenting a fake certificate of registration.

Harpreet Kaur, a “nurse” who got her registration certificate from an online scammer. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Kaur, she said, was concerned that if the court found she had knowingly provided the document, a criminal conviction as well as a fine would be imposed.

“We take issue with the assertion on the part of the prosecution that she knew it was bogus at the time she used it,” she said.

“She agrees she was reckless by not looking into the genuineness of it, and the genuineness of the person who gave it to her online, who claimed to be an agent that turned out to be a scammer.”

In a statement, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation told The Advertiser “Ms Kaur, who has never held registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, is alleged to have provided one employer a false Ahpra certificate of registration and sent another employer an email advising she had received her Registered Nurse registration”.

Craig Fabbian, prosecuting, said he would accept Kaur’s guilty pleas, but did not accept she acted without knowing her certificate was fake.

Harpreet Kaur, left, leaves the Adelaide Magistrates Court with her lawyer. Picture: Brenton Edwards

“There’s been a series of communications between the parties to resolve this matter, so it has reached a point where we will need a determination from the court,” Mr Fabbian said.

“Just to clarify, the allegation is that a false certificate of registration relating to nursing was provided to an employer. It’s not an issue how that came to be possessed, the issue is the intention and the direct use of that provision to employers. It is the prosecution's position that that must have been done so knowingly, rather than recklessly.

“The nature of the charges are quite serious, as it carries a maximum term of imprisonment of three years, or a $60,000 fine per offence. Prosecution isn’t seeking imprisonment in this instance, we are seeking a conviction and a fine.

The court heard Kaur would likely give evidence in the next hearing, as would an AHPRA employee.

Kaur will face court again in October.

Originally published as Harpreet Kaur, 31, pleads guilty to two charges of claiming to be a health care practitioner