A doctor who told a court that work stress caused his chronic opioid addiction and led him to steal and forge prescriptions is to be spared jail and a criminal record.
Daniel Nevin (39) pleaded guilty at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court to the theft of prescription pads from two hospitals, 46 counts of forgery and using false instruments between 2021 and last year.
His fiancee Rebecca Moylan (35), a qualified nurse, admitted stealing prescriptions and unlawfully using them in pharmacies.
Judge Keenan Johnson said these offences undermined the integrity of the medical prescription system and said Nevin was in the throes of an addiction but had never put a patient at risk.
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He said the couple whose careers have been ruined and reputations tarnished had only damaged themselves, saying, “The main victims of this are the two accused.”
Nevin achieved a PhD from Trinity College Dublin, specialising in pharmacology, and had worked in medical research in Australia before returning to Ireland to continue his studies. He qualified as a medical doctor in 2018.
When the addiction started in 2019 he tried to tackle the problem, but relapsed around the period of offending.
Judge Johnson said Nevin was a “high achiever”, but had removed himself from working onwards as a clinician and moved into a tutoring role at Midlands Regional General Hospital.
The judge was also mindful of the pressures placed on medical professionals working 24-hour shifts in busy environments.
He said the couple did not reach the threshold for a custodial sentence and said they had paid a huge price.
Judge Johnson said they could be spared convictions and would receive the benefit of the Probation of Offenders Act if Nevin and his fiancee donated €15,000 and €5,000 respectively to the Merchant Quay drug treatment project as a form of restorative justice.
Among Nevin’s charges were thefts of prescriptions from University Hospital Galway between July 2021 and July 2023 and from the Midlands Regional General Hospital in Mullingar from July 10th, 2023, until February 18th last year.
The remaining charges he admitted included three counts of using false prescriptions in pharmacies in Kells, Co Meath, at Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, and in Tullamore, Co Offaly.
Moylan admitted theft of prescription pads from St James’s Hospital in Dublin from September 1st, 2023, until November that year and using prescriptions forged by her partner in several pharmacies.
The couple, of Greenpark Meadows, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, used a fictitious patient’s name on most of the prescriptions to get OxyContin, a highly addictive opioid-based medicine.
Their offending was exposed when a pharmacist in Mullingar became suspicious in May last year, the court heard.
He contacted University Hospital Galway and discovered they had no record of the prescription or the named patient.
In court, Nevin agreed with his barrister, Colm Smyth SC, that the “stress and strain of the job precipitated and aggravated” Nevin’s addiction. The doctor initially managed to buy opioids online before he sought help to tackle the problem.
He said after a substantial period of sobriety, he had a relapse, resulting in a prolonged absence from work and “I took myself out of the clinician domain”. He said he switched to a teaching role in the hospital, saying he was passionate about education.
Nevin said the consequences had been devastating. He expressed remorse and said he was attending addiction counselling.
The court heard how Moylan, while studying to be a nurse, had cared for her terminally ill mother.
Dara Foynes SC, defending, said Moylan acted out of the highest level of compassion and concern for her partner and was trying to manage a situation that was out of control, resulting in self-inflicted harm and a fall from grace.
The court heard Moylan has resigned from her job, agreed not to work as a nurse again, while Nevin awaited a decision on the future of his medical career.
Their court case was adjourned until Friday.
