Published: August 03, 2009 01:26 pm      

Prescription fraud suspects face 12 charges each

Crossville Police, tipped off by local pharmacies, may have broken up an area prescription fraud ring with the arrest of two Putnam County women recently, according to reports.

Amber Marie Ledbetter, 28, 3948 Hanging Limb Rd., Monterey, and Charity Ann Ledbetter, 33, 4094 Hanging Limb Rd., Monterey, each face 12 charges ranging from prescription fraud to impersonation in connection with the incident. Both were taken into custody on July 19, according to Ptl. Hammons' report.

On the afternoon of July 19 city police were dispatched to Rite Aid drug store on N. Main St. to investigate a fraudulent prescription and learned that the Cookeville nurse practitioner listed as issuing the script for 40 hydrocodone pills had not issued the prescription. According to the report, similar prescriptions had surfaced in Cookeville.

While Ptls. Hammons and White were taking statements at Rite Aid, they received a call from the Kroger Pharmacy reporting that a similar prescription had been given to that pharmacy for 60 hydrocodones. Before officers could respond to Kroger, however, they received a dispatch to CVS Pharmacy on West Ave. where two women and a man were at the drive-thru to pick up the same type of forged prescription.

Police located the trio in a 2003 Chevrolet truck and when confronted, the three told police they knew nothing of the bogus prescriptions that were at a pharmacy in the city.

The man was not charged.

The male told police that he knew nothing of a scheme to obtain drugs by fraud and that he had simply agreed to drive the women to Crossville to pick up prescriptions. He added that he was to take them to the Kmart pharmacy once they left CVS.

Both women were taken into custody and a search of a backpack yielded a pill crusher and two prescriptions from Walmart with receipts for hydroquinone. Also found were other drugs.

Police also recovered two notebooks containing the phone numbers of local pharmacies and Drug Enforcement Administration numbers of doctors used to get the prescriptions. A separate piece of paper with doctors' names and DEA numbers was also recovered.

At least one of the women gave police a statement to police and both are under investigation for the same activity in Putnam County.