| Proceedings in the Supreme Court
of New South Wales, commenced by NSW Agriculture against a registered
Veterinary Surgeon, Dr Sven Arne Temmingh, have been finalised.
On 29 July 2003, Simpson J convicted Dr Temmingh on two charges, after
he had pleaded ‘Guilty’ to the charges.
Full reasons for the decision of the Court had been delivered on 15 April
2003.
Charges
The charges were:
- That Dr Temmingh did wilfully supply injectable steroids, contrary
to the provisions of clause 3A of an Order (Order 1998/1) made pursuant
to section 46 of the Stock Medicines Act 1989
- That Dr Temmingh did wilfully make a false entry in a record, contrary
to the provisions of clause 8C of an Order (Order 1998/1) made pursuant
to section 46 of the Stock Medicines Act 1989
The Court imposed fines of $3,000 and $2,000 respectively and ordered
Dr Temmingh to pay $30,000 for costs incurred by NSW Agriculture.
Facts:
The facts on which the first conviction was based and which Dr Temmingh
admitted, related to the supply by Dr
Temmingh of anabolic steroids worth $35,404 by way of export to China
during 1999. The second conviction
related to the making of false entries by Dr Temmingh of the use of anabolic
steroids at his premises in NSW. The
evidence was that Dr Temmingh attempted to reconstruct a steroid register
from other documents after NSW
Agriculture inspectors became aware in June 1999 that he did not have
a steroids register.
Disciplinary Action:
The Supreme Court has provided a Certificate of Conviction to the Board.
That Certificate is deemed to be a
complaint of professional misconduct under the Veterinary Surgeons Act
1986, and that complaint is now before the
Veterinary Surgeons Investigating Committee for consideration of disciplinary
action.
The citation for the full reasons of Justice Simpson in this case is
Director General NSW Department of Agriculture v
Temmingh [2003] NSWSC 247 and the reasons can be accessed through the
legislation link to the austlii database
on the Board’s
website. |