Manchester Man Faces Prescription Drug Fraud Charges For Second Time In Less Than a Year

A 31-year old Manchester man was arrested Monday and charged with prescription drug fraud, less than a year after being convicted of similar charges and while he was still on probation for those offenses.

According to information provided by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Connecticut, , 31, of Manchester, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint Monday morning and charged with obtaining controlled substances by misrepresentation, fraud, deception, or subterfuge, and with making false statements relating to a health care fraud matter.

According to the complaint, Morin, while on supervised release from a December 2010 conviction for similar crimes, used physicians’ identities and Drug Enforcement Agency registration numbers to obtain 5,455 hydrocodone/acetaminophen pills, a controlled substance also known by the brand names of Vicodin or Norco.

Morin used the identities of four different medical professionals to “call-in” at least 69 prescriptions under approximately 44 different patient aliases to fraudulently obtain the pills, according to information released by the U.S. Attorney's Office. He would then travel to the assorted pharmacies to collect the pills.

Morin appeared before Judge Thomas P. Smith in Hartford. Monday Morning and is currently being detained on the charges.

On December 17, 2010, Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford sentenced Morin to 12 months of imprisonment, followed by one year of supervised release, for falsely obtaining more than 6,000 pills of controlled substances in a similar scheme.  He was released from prison and began serving his term of supervised release on May 2, 2011, the same date the complaint alleges he began his latest prescription drug fraud scheme.

The charge of obtaining controlled substances by misrepresentation, fraud, deception, or subterfuge carries a maximum prison term of eight years, and the charge of making false statements relating to a health care fraud matter carries a maximum prison term of five years.