Doctor pleads guilty to stealing and forging prescriptions

Tom Tuite

A medical doctor suffering from drug addiction has pleaded guilty to forgery, stealing prescriptions from two major hospitals and using them in pharmacies around the midlands over a three-year period.

Daniel Nevin, 39, of Greenpark Meadows, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, pleaded guilty on Tuesday at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court to ten counts on an indictment for offences of theft, forgery and using false instruments, committed from 2021 until 2024.

His 34-year-old partner, Rebecca Moylan, who has the same address, admitted stealing prescriptions from a hospital and unlawfully using them in pharmacies in Mullingar.

Sentencing was adjourned pending reports on his efforts to tackle his addiction to prescription drugs.

Among the doctor's charges were two thefts of prescriptions from University Hospital Galway between July 2021 and July 2023 and the Midlands Regional General Hospital Mullingar from July 10th, 2023, until February 18th, 2024.

The remaining charges Nevin admitted included three counts of using false prescriptions in pharmacies in Kells, Co Meath, Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath and Tullamore, Co. Offaly, on various dates. There were also five counts of forging prescriptions.

He was initially sent forward for trial on 49 charges in the book of evidence, but guilty pleas were entered to ten on a “full facts” basis.

Colm Smyth SC, defending, said Nevin was a young medical doctor who had suffered from an addiction to prescription drugs since 2019.

Mr Smyth said Nevin was referred to the medical council at that time, and it was supportive. But he relapsed, and that led to the offences before the court.

He has been engaging with a GP, another doctor who is a rehabilitation specialist, and a psychiatrist about other trauma issues.

Nevin has been involved in a “weaning process” from drugs and has been providing monthly urine analysis, the court heard.

Mr Smyth asked that sentencing be delayed so that various reports would be available, and by that stage, Nevin would have been providing urine analysis for a year.

Judge Keenan Johnson remanded him on continuing bail pending sentence to appear again in July along with his 34-year-old fiancée.

Rebecca Moylan admitted to the theft of prescriptions from St James’s Hospital in Dublin from September 1st, 2023, until November of that year.

She also owned up to using false prescriptions in three pharmacies.

The defence told Judge Johnson that she used the prescriptions to assist someone who was in “chronic pain”. They spoke only to confirm their pleas.