By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Beaconsfield Primary School teacher who pleaded guilty to supplying fake medical certificates to get paid sick leave has been given a 12-month good behaviour bond.
The long-term teacher made full admissions to making the four documents but argued she’d been suffering from personal issues at the time, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court was told on 27 February.
The documents covered a total of seven days’ leave, dating as far back as 29 October 2009, and had been presented to school principal Gary Methven.
Two were presented in 2010, with the most recent on 12 May 2015, the court heard.
According to police, the teacher recalled creating the first doctor’s certificate, purportedly from Casey Super Clinic, on her home computer during what she described as a “desperate time at home”.
“I made the certificate because I was scared of going to the doctor at the time,” she had told police.
Police argued the school was penalised by not just paying out the teacher’s sick leave but covering an extra $290 a day for relief teachers.
In court, the teacher – who had no prior convictions – was supported by an Australian Education Union representative.
The union rep took photos of two of the school’s administrators despite the administrators’ attempts to shield their faces in the courtroom before the hearing.
Defence lawyer Steven Pica told the court that the teacher, being in a “small community”, felt she could not keep going to the doctor for her “personal matters”.
The teacher had genuinely attended Monash Medical Centre at the time of the most recent doctor’s certificate, he said.
“There were probably about 40 days (of further sick leave) she could have taken.”
The accused remains a teacher at the school but magistrate Barry Schultz noted that “win, lose or draw” the teacher’s career would be “fraught”.
Mr Schultz said he’d observed the immense impact of particular personal issues on some defendants, who sometimes “act out”.
He said the teacher’s conduct was “not excusable but was explicable”, and should be viewed with compassion from the court.
He was surprised the case had become a police matter, noting the Department of Education had advised in June 2016 that it was likely to reprimand the teacher.
“This could have been dealt with as an internal disciplinary matter,” Mr Schultz said.
Mr Schultz said a police informant had originally recommended a diversion program – which would lead to charges being dropped and the teacher having no criminal record.
Police seemed to withdraw the invitation due to media interest in the case, he said.
Mr Schultz ordered the teacher to pay $250 to the court’s charitable fund as part of a 12-month adjourned undertaking without conviction.
He’d imposed similar sentences for “far more serious” offending in the past, he said.
