Woman took out false loans to pay for grandmother's Alzheimer's drugs the NHS denied her

A woman who took out loans of more than £6,000 under false names to pay for Alzheimer's drugs her grandmother needed was spared jail yesterday.

Fiona Bartlett, 41, fraudulently applied for 18 loans in a desperate attempt to pay for a £250-a-month drug after her grandmother was refused NHS funding.

The mother of two had already borrowed more than £20,000 from the loan company she worked for, Provident Personal Credit.

But when she was unable to borrow any more in her own name, she created fictitious customers.

Magistrates in Basingstoke, Hampshire, heard that Bartlett's grandmother, Creamley Walker, who is in her 90s, had been prescribed Aricept  -  which can slow the progression of Alzheimer's  -  when she was living in Kent.

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

Instead, doctors at Southampton General Hospital prescribed tranquillising drugs.

Bartlett said that without Aricept, her grandmother became terrified and was reduced to the mental state of a toddler.

The family sought a second opinion through a private consultation and Mrs Walker was prescribed Aricept again. 

When Bartlett could no longer keep up the repayments on the false loans she took out to pay for the drug, she was forced to come clean to her bosses.

Nicholas Bates, defending, described his client as 'very brave' in coming forward to admit her offences.

He said the crimes were not committed so his client could enjoy a 'champagne lifestyle', but were solely to fund her grandmother's treatment. 

Urging the magistrates not to send his client to prison, Mr Bates told the court that Bartlett has 13-year-old twin boys, one of whom suffers from Asperger's Syndrome and requires a significant amount of care.

He added that Bartlett had already started repaying the £6,297 owed to her employer.

Bartlett, who has a previous conviction for a similar breach of trust, admitted submitting false loan applications.

She was given a community punishment order and fined £50.

Presiding magistrate Hilary Staples said the court decided against sending her to jail because of her early guilty plea, her remorse and her voluntary efforts to pay the money back.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommended in 2005 that Aricept should be prescribed only to patients with moderate Alzheimer's.

But yesterday the chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, Neil Hunt, said: 'People with dementia should not be forced to deteriorate before they get access to treatment that improves quality of life.

'Unpaid carers save the UK £6 billion every year and many are already living on the poverty line, meaning treatment is out of reach.

'It makes no clinical, economic or moral sense to deny people in the early stages of Alzheimer's access to drugs.'

A spokesman for Hampshire Primary Care Trust said that it followed NICE guidelines and that decisions about prescribing the medication lie with consultants.