Sarah Ward who ripped off Medicare through her employer has had her sentence delayed

Sarah Ward, 31, was due to be locked up on Wednesday after admitting a second workplace medical fraud.

But on the eve of sentencing, his lawyers produced a third psychological report diagnosing him with a personality disorder – in conflict with two other experts.

Previous experts found that Ward had traits of personality disorders, but did not have a diagnosed condition.

The latest report revealed that she had a diagnosed personality disorder, with obsessive-compulsive traits.

She was not a person driven by pure greed or pure malice, but by a disordered state of mind, her attorney Michael Allen said.

Ward submitted hundreds of questionable Medicare claims for herself and her husband while working as a receptionist at the Melbourne Digestive Clinic between March 2019 and April 2020.

She made a total of 1,609 false statements – up to 80 a day – embezzling $181,121.75 from bank accounts for herself and her husband.

Prosecutor Adam Murphy described it as a “robbery of the Australian community”.

The latest medical report describes Ward’s offense as “passive hostility to his employers.”

Allen said she felt angry because she was expected to work unpaid hours, and her obsessive personality provided her with a strategy that momentarily made her feel better about herself.

County Court Judge Geoff Chettle tried to simplify this, suggesting that “that’s when she felt she was working too hard and they owed her money and so she gave it up. stolen”.

She will be jailed when sentenced on Friday. She has been approved for a prison program, which means her one-year-old child can accompany her.

Ward’s offense came as a shock to then-coworker Vanessa Whitelaw, who initially supported the young mum before facing evidence of her guilt.

Colleagues wondered about Ward’s lavish lifestyle, but never imagined where the money came from.

“We thought it was very strange — she was very young, (with) a new family, a mortgage, driving in a $150,000 vehicle, Gucci scarves, fancy shoes,” she said. .

“But never in a million years did we think it was happening behind the scenes.”

Little did they know that in 2015, Ward dishonestly obtained $29,000 in false reimbursements on behalf of patients at Cabrini Hospital, where she had worked.

She was working at another doctor’s office between the most recent offense and her maternity leave before the birth of her second child last February.

They were unaware of his fraudulent background.

Ward has since refunded the money.