WOBURN — A former Burlington police officer will spend a year behind bars after pleading guilty Tuesday to charges in connection with a scheme in which he falsified prescriptions to pocket more than 260 Percocets and collected tens of thousands of dollars in false disability claims.
In Middlesex Superior Court, Mark Driscoll, 39, of Wakefield, pleaded guilty to 26 indictments, including forgery, larceny over $250, uttering false prescriptions, fraudulently obtaining controlled substances, obtaining a signature under false pretenses, attempting to commit larceny and insurance fraud.
Middlesex Superior Court Judge Maynard Kirpalani sentenced Driscoll, to two years in jail, with one year to serve and the balance suspended for four years while he is on probation. Driscoll was ordered to pay more than $39,000 in restitution and to undergo drug screening, substance-abuse and mental-health counseling, and to remain drug and alcohol free.
Driscoll will begin serving his sentence today.
“This defendant passed falsified prescriptions to obtain serious pain medications that were not legitimately ordered by a doctor, all while wearing his uniform,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement.
Prosecutors allege that on July 10, 2013, Driscoll was wearing his uniform when he went into a Burlington CVS pharmacy where he attempted to fill an illegally written prescription in his wife’s name for Percocet. When the pharmacist noticed the prescription did not meet new security features that had taken effect nine days earlier, Driscoll was told it could not be filled until the prescribing doctor verified it. The doctor’s office confirmed the prescription was not valid.
Officials determined that Driscoll had presented five fraudulent prescriptions at the CVS pharmacy in Burlington between May and July 2013, receiving more than 260 Percocet tablets. The investigation yielded information that Driscoll also passed falsified prescriptions at the Osco Pharmacy in Burlington, filling four prescriptions for hundreds of pain medications.
Burlington police placed Driscoll on administrative leave on July 12, 2013. Driscoll, who began his career with Burlington police in 2004, has since resigned from the department.
Officials also learned that Driscoll forged a signature from police administrators on an insurance claim for disability payments for the period he was on administrative leave. The investigation revealed he had collected nearly $40,000 in fraudulent benefits from filing eight prior insurance claims, beginning in 2006.
