A Galician court condemns a doctor who falsified the certificate of a friend’s wife to cover an absence from his workplace
The Court of First Instance and Instruction number 1 of the Pontevedra town of Redondela has sentenced a registered doctor in that province to pay a fine of 1,260 euros for a minor crime of falsification of certificates after falsifying a document of this type for a worker, whose husband she knew, who did not go to her workplace one afternoon for two hours, and who was also fined the payment of 720 euros for the use of it.
The woman works for Aceesca, an Association to Support People with Intellectual Diversity, based in O Porriño, the town where she resides. The case dates back to May 2022, when he presented to the management a certificate of sick leave signed by the aforementioned doctor in which it can be read that “he came to my consultation at 3:20 p.m., being attended to at 4:10 p.m. of several medical tests, remaining in my office until 6:50 p.m.”, as a result of which he was prescribed to “rest for more or less 12 hours.”
It so happens that two weeks earlier the employee had requested paid leave for the same afternoon time slot of that day, which was not granted by the company, alleging that the service could not be left unattended. A few days later she commented that she had to go to a scheduled medical appointment, but her bosses were distrustful and hired a detective, who discovered her lie by contrasting the falsity of the medical excuse.
Private investigation provides evidence
The investigator followed the worker’s steps the same afternoon that she was supposedly going to visit the doctor and verified that she was driving by car during those hours but did not attend any consultation. In the report presented to the company, the professional included several photographs along with a video recording in which he could perfectly see how, prior to work hours, he followed the employee’s vehicle without it making any stops. When he passed it he verified that it was her without any doubt. He even passed by him at a gas station to fully ascertain his identity.
Once the sentence was handed down in the first instance, the doctor appealed to the Fifth Section of the Court of Pontevedra, based in Vigo, but the court rejected the appeal due to the obvious contradictions, which he considered to be illogical, in the statements made at the trial both by the doctor and by the worker, to whom was added the relationship of friendship that the former maintained with the husband of the latter.
The court considered, for example, that it is inconsistent that the doctor did not indicate in the certificate the reason why the consultation lasted more than two hours or the reason for the woman’s visit, nor did he detail the diagnosis or the tests. carried out. Regarding the employee, who stated that she had made the appointment due to an anxiety attack, the court argued that this type of crisis is usually instantaneous, so it does not seem credible that she “requested an appointment a month in advance,” as Nor is it true that he did not request permission from his workplace to attend a medical appointment from the first moment.