FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 20, 2018
Contact: Heather F. Williamson
Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office
20 East Market Street
Leesburg, VA 20176-2809
(703) 777-0242
D.C. MAN CONVICTED FOR PASSING FRAUDULENT PRESCRIPTION IN LOUDOUN
JUDGE IMPOSES 4 YEARS IN PRISON
LEESBURG, Virginia – June 19, 2018. Anthony Maurice Wigglesworth, 52, appeared before the Circuit Court of Loudoun County, for sentencing on one count of prescription fraud and one count of possession of schedule I or II controlled substance.
On the evening of October 4, 2017, Anthony Wigglesworth entered the CVS pharmacy located in South Riding and passed a fraudulent prescription for 90 tablets of Oxycodone under a fraudulent name. Wigglesworth presented his own Virginia operator’s license which was scanned and recorded by the pharmacist on duty.
On December 13, 2017, a Loudoun County Sheriff’s Detective responded to the store in reference to a prescription fraud complaint. The pharmacist provided the original prescription presented by Wigglesworth, CVS surveillance video from October 4th, and Wigglesworth’s operator’s license information. The prescribing doctor was contacted and he confirmed that he did not write the prescription presented by Wigglesworth.
Wigglesworth pleaded guilty to the charges on March 26, 2018.
Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Ryan W. Perry asked the Court to impose four years and seven months, high end of the Virginia Sentencing Guidelines recommendation for this case. The Commonwealth suggested that the high end of the guidelines was an appropriate sentence based on Wigglesworth’s criminal history. “He was last convicted of this same crime in 2015. He committed it again in 2017. This shows he doesn’t learn and he isn’t interested in changing his ways,” said Perry. Judge J. Howe Brown Jr. sentenced Wigglesworth to serve four years in the Virginia Department of Corrections, which was the mid-point of the Virginia Sentencing Guidelines recommendation.
In addition to the active jail sentence, Judge Brown imposed an additional sixteen years of suspended time, placed Wigglesworth on indefinite supervised probation, and suspended his privilege to operate a motor vehicle is suspended for six months.
“Although charged with prescription fraud, this case is far more than that,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman. “This is but one facet of the problem that has continued to feed the opioid epidemic nationwide.” Plowman continued, “Hopefully, sentences such as this will deter others from seeking to profit at the expense of the community’s health.”
Wigglesworth’s prior criminal record dates back nearly 30 years and includes convictions for robbery, uttering, possession of cocaine, hit and run, possession of Oxycodone, identity theft, petit larceny, and multiple prior prescription frauds.
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