Woman stole thousands to pay for grandmother's Alzheimer drug, court told

A woman who fraudulently took out loans under false names used the money to buy an Alzheimer's drug for her grandmother because it was not available on the NHS, a court heard.

By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Last Updated: 8:42PM BST 03 Jul 2008

Fiona Bartlett, 41, stole the cash from her employer so she could buy the drug Aricept, which can slow down the progress of the disease.

Using false identities she authorised a total of 18 loans for herself with Provident Personal Credit.

At the time she was paying around £250 a month for the medication, which, on top of private consultation fees, left her with debts of £20,000.

Her grandmother, who is in her 90s, had previously received Aricept when she lived in Kent.

But when she moved to Basingstoke, Hants, to be cared for by her granddaughter, she was no longer able to get the drug on the NHS.

Basingstoke Magistrates' Court was told that the mother of two had made the false credit agreements between December 2007 and the beginning of March this year.

She told her employers what she had done when she could no longer keep up with the repayments.

Nicholas Bates, defending, said that the crimes had not been committed so that his client could enjoy a "champagne lifestyle", and that the money was used solely to fund her grandmother's treatment.

He added that she had already started to repay the money to her employer.

Prosecutor Linda Jones told the court that Bartlett, who worked as an agent for the firm, had a previous conviction for a similar breach of trust.

Bartlett admitted six counts of submitting false loan applications to Provident Personal Credit, for a total of £2,050.

She also asked the justices to take 12 similar offences into consideration, bringing the total cost of the fraud to £6,297.

She was sentenced to do six months of community service and to remain indoors between 8pm and 7am.

She was also ordered to pay £50 pounds towards court costs.

Speaking outside court, she said: "What I did was awful, but what do you do when you know something works?

"Without Aricept my grandmother was terrified - she was like a toddler who was being attacked."

The Alzheimer's Society believes that the £2.50 a day drug should be available on the NHS to sufferers at all stages of the illness.

However, in 2005 the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice), the government's drugs watchdog, recommended that it should only be prescribed to patients with "moderate" Alzheimer's, meaning that thousands of patients have to wait until their disease has progressed before they can access the treatment.

Hampshire Primary Care Trust said its policy is to follow the Nice guidelines and decisions about prescribing the medication lie with consultants.

Martin Robinson, director of operations for older people's mental health services at Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust, said: "We prescribe memory drugs in line with NICE guidance and this includes Aricept, Reminyl and Exelon.

"Normally, this would follow a referral from a patient's GP for specialist assessment and all assessments are based around needs."

Nice says that providing the drug to all Alzheimer's patients, of which there are around 400,000 in Britain, would be too expensive.

Toothpaste made me fail the school drug test

Last updated at 22:00 02 March 2007

Brush with disaster: Megan Penn's false drug reading was caused by toothpaste

Her teachers couldn't believe it. Neither could Megan Penn.

But the drug test result was unequivocal.

It showed the 13-year-old model pupil had taken crystal meth, the deadly drug that is said to be more addictive than cocaine or heroin.

Although she knew she hadn't taken any drug, Megan and her family had to wait several weeks before further tests showed the culprit - her toothpaste.

Her ordeal began when Megan took part in a random drugs test at her school.

Ministers hope all secondary schools will eventually carry out such tests to identify pupils using cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine or heroin.

The idea is to help those identified address their drug problem, although in some cases police and social services could be called in.

Now critics are urging the Department for Education and Skills to scrap plans to extend the programme across the country, claiming the damage caused by incorrect readings such as Megan's was too much to risk.

Megan said she felt "humiliated" when the mouth swab she gave tested positive for the Class A drug in front of classmates.

She was not the only one. An 11-year-old boy also failed the test, with the results wrongly indicating he had taken amphetamines.

The blunders happened at Colne Community School in Brightlingsea, Essex, where random tests for drugs began two years ago.

"They gave me two swabs to rub on the inside of my mouth," said Megan at her family home in St Osyth. "There was a coloured line on my test which meant it was positive but teachers told me not to worry.

"But later in the day I was asked to go to the administration office and they rang my mum and told her to come to school because it was serious. They said I had failed a test for a drug called crystal meth. When I left the office there were lots of people watching. It was very embarrassing."

Her mother, Penelope, 40, said: "I couldn't believe it. I was so worried I spoke to our GP who did a test that was completely clear. That helped put our minds at rest but we still had to wait until after Christmas for the school results.

"In January we received a letter from the laboratory explaining that the false reading was probably caused by some chemical in the toothpaste. I was furious that the school could have jeopardised my daughter's future because it failed to make sure the tests were reliable."

Assistant headmaster Mark Thomson said teachers were immediately suspicious of the results because of the two well-behaved pupils involved.

But he admitted it had been a "nightmare" for them waiting for further tests to prove their innocence.

FLUORIDE...
Making Toothpaste a Toxic Drug
by Jim Lynn

If you haven't read the back of your toothpaste label recently, you are in for shock. On my desk in front of me is a tube of Kids Crest, billed as a "Sodium FLUORIDE Anticavity Toothpaste." Straight forward enough except for one thing...there's a new WARNING LABEL on the back that reads;

"WARNINGS: Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age. If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek PROFESSIONAL HELP or contact a POISON CONTROL center immediately."

If the words "professional help" and "poison control center" don't grab your attention, they should. Since mid-1997, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has mandated all toothpastes containing FLUORIDE to carry this warning. And for good reason.

An overwhelming, growing body of evidence, plus old WWII secret government documents now available all point to FLUORIDE as being a toxic drug NOT FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION. (1) Even the FDA has finally raised an eyebrow...enough to mandate this warning be included on labeling. The mandate is significant because it means the FDA now regards fluoride laden toothpaste as a potential toxic drug!

The percentage of fluoride cannot be above 1000 ppm for adult and 500 ppm for children. The Crest "Kid's" formula contains 0.15% w/v fluoride ion. (2) So how is that legally possible? It's obvious that Crest is deliberately targeting small children ...the same group of kids the WARNING LABEL is pointing to.

If the formulation contains fluoride ion higher than 1000 ppm, it can cause poison; and the fluoride ion can react with calcium ion and magnesium in the human body and cause low level calcium ion and magnesium ion in blood. In some cases it has caused heart and muscle problems. If a child were to take a big spoonful of this fluoride and get it down, it is a poison that could kill the child. That is why the government has finally decided to act on this long standing issue regarding fluoridation.

Of course, many communities have fluoridated their drinking water for many years now, supposedly to fight tooth decay. But, John R. Lee, M.D. a fluoride toxicity researcher since 1972, calls that a myth. He further states the myth has been perpetuated via "clever propaganda." He believes adding fluoride to water supplies was a contrivance to dispose of waste byproducts from the fertilizer and aluminum industries. There is a large volume of evidence to support his belief. (3)

Dr. Lee has established a direct link between fluoride use, osteoporosis and increased incidence of hip fractures in his report, A Brief Account of the Fluoridation And Hip Fracture Problem.

Today a growing number of doctors and researchers are expressing concern over public exposure to the chemical, which has led some cities to vote against water contamination with fluoridation. Jonathon Wright, M.D., medical researcher of the Tahoma Clinic in Kent Washington says that, "When folks are fully informed (about fluoride), they usually turn it down." (4)

Even so, fluoridation of water and toothpaste continues to be endorsed by various health officials and the American Dental Association (ADA).

How much fluoride are you ingesting? There's no way to know if you are ingesting over the recommended levels or not. Even if you don't use a fluoride toothpaste or routinely drink water from a source that is fluoridated, you still may be ingesting unknown levels of fluoride. Many commercial sodas, juices and other water-based food products may contain fluoride if they are produced where the water is fluoridated.

As for toothpaste, I recommend you use a proven formula of natural ingredients, free of harmful chemicals. (see what EOO's disclaimer above says about chemicals and drugs)

Resources:

Fluoride, Teeth and the Atomic Bomb
http://www.trufax.org/catalog/fluoro.html