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Fake Internet sick notes illegal

by on31 July 2008

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Fraud


Aussie doctors have warned that employees who buy fake sick notes over the Internet are committing fraud.

The site, www.doctorsnotestore.com, is expected to set up its Web presence in Australian next month. It will flog notes at $40 each, which is cheaper than a visit to the G.P.

Most employers now require a medical certificate if an employee calls in sick for two days or more and is seeking paid sick leave. Dr. Wayne Herdy,  a G.P., lawyer and cCairman of the Ethics Committee of the Australian Medical Association Queensland, said forging doctors' signatures at the bottom of the certificates was breaking the law.

Doctors also used a variety of different computer-generated sickness certificates. The site claims that the sick notes are just for novelty purposes. But Herdy is not convinced. He said that it was clearly inciting and abetting fraud and "I would have thought that apart from medical bodies like the AMA looking at it, it's a matter that even the police should be looking at."

More here.


Last modified on 31 July 2008
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