An Auckland pharmacist has admitted using the names of dead patients to make false claims worth almost $70,000.

Sandringham Village Pharmacy director Wayne Baker pleaded guilty to 95 charges of defrauding the Auckland District Health Board in the Auckland District Court on August 9.

Baker, 54, defrauded the board by filing the false claims that were either not requested, had expired or were in the names of dead patients between July 2006 and July 2009.

Court documents showed a large part of Baker’s income came from government subsidies for dispensing and supplying drugs.

His fraud plan unravelled when a locum pharmacist tipped off the Ministry of Health’s fraud hotline in February 2009.

A Ministry of Health investigation found Baker was misrepresenting and altering entries for the drug Simvastatin to increase subsidies, had created fictitious repeat dispensings to obtain additional fees, and claimed for prescriptions that were not given to patients.

In some cases, the pharmacy used the names of deceased patients to claim for payments.

It also claimed for dispensing more expensive proprietary medicines though it had only supplied cheaper generic versions.

Part of the offending involved Baker altering computer entries to show a drug with a subsidy six times higher than the generic one prescribed had been claimed.

There were 25 cases where Baker claimed for repeats after patients had died, involving 575 pharmaceutical items.

A Ministry of Health statement said Baker had repaid the Ministry the entire amount of $69,070.59.

He has been remanded on bail and will be sentenced in October.