Woman arrested for calling in fake drug prescription

CRESTVIEW - Local and state law enforcement officers arrested a woman accused of fradulently filing hydrocodone prescriptions, charging her with insurance fraud and prescription fraud.

The Crestview Police Department received phone calls from the Walgreens in Crestview about a woman who was attempting to fill a Lortab 10 prescription. When the officers arrived, the woman, Tonya Smith, consented to an interview. She told officers that she'd called in 14 prescriptions under her husband's name, totalling at least 600 hydrocodone pills.

Crestview police officers obtained a sworn statement from the doctor from whose office the prescriptions allegedly originated. He said the last time he had seen the woman's husband was 2006, and that the prescriptions were fraudulent.

Further investigation revealed that Ms. Smith previously worked at Immediate Care at White-Wilson Medical Center, which gave her experience in the procedures required to call prescriptions. The report alleges that she used this knowledge to file fradulent prescriptions under the name of one of her former co-workers.

She was arrested on felony charges of insurance fraud and prescription fraud.

The Florida Division of Financial Services was the other agency involved in Smith's arrest.