AN experienced nurse lost her good name when, at a low personal ebb, she copied a patient’s prescription for anti-depressants.

Tracy Dutton used the signature ‘W Smith’ when signing the prescription form for 56 anti-depressant pills, supposedly collected on behalf of a 74-year-old patient at North House Surgery, in Crook, where she worked as a cardiac nurse.

Durham Crown Court heard that only half were available, so when the remaining 28 reached the pharmacy, in Bishop Auckland, weeks later, staff contacted the patient, who said he knew nothing about the prescription.

Police were contacted by the pharmacy, as prescription fraud was suspected.

Jane Waugh, prosecuting, said Dutton was initially, “given the benefit of the doubt”, as it was thought a nurse would not do anything of this nature and it must be a mistake.

But when she learned a criminal investigation was underway she phoned the patient and said she had picked up the prescription on his behalf, even though the surgery has no facility for collecting prescriptions.

Dutton, 43, of Kimberley Avenue, North Shields, previously denied fraud by false representation, but when the charge was put to her again, at the start of her scheduled trial, she pleaded guilty.

Dan Cordey, mitigating, said it had been a, “fraught, stressful time” for the defendant in her domestic life at the time and, “in panic”, having tried to contact her own GP, she made a copy of a former prescription for the patient.

He added that she has now lost her good name and, as a registered nurse, will be subject to disciplinary procedures.

Having read a number of character testimonials, Judge Simon Hickey said, in the circumstances, a two-year conditional discharge was appropriate.