Other staff said Challita told them the details were necessary to meet regulatory standards.
Roy said Challita was friendly, good with children and developed close relationships with staff, including herself, but she seemed to have pain issues requiring medication constantly.
“It would be as simple as breaking an acrylic nail off, and she’d come and ask [for medication],” she said.
A text message sighted by this masthead appears to show Challita messaging Roy asking if she had anything “stronger than Ibuprofen and Panadol”.
“I have the worst tooth pain, I’m in agony,” Challita allegedly wrote, declining Roy’s offer of an antiseptic gum gel. “Do you know anyone selling like Panadine Fort [sic] as you know everyone instead of me going to doctors I can just buy lol.”
Roy said Challita also asked her in person for Endone, a more powerful opioid, prescribed to her father for a work injury. She discovered the alleged fraud after another staff member instructed her to review her Medicare records.
The records, sighted by this masthead, show prescriptions for Panadeine Forte twice in August last year and once in March this year, which Roy said she never visited a doctor about or picked up from the pharmacy.
“I was shocked, and I was upset because [Challita and I] were close,” she said.
Another prescription sighted by this masthead listed Challita’s phone number under another person’s name.
Roy and the three other staff members who requested anonymity reported the fraud to the police.
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One staff member said she suspected Challita was using her card after receiving notifications about doctors’ appointments she didn’t book, and noticing Challita left at the same time as the appointment.
When she checked her records, she found two prescriptions for Panadeine Forte that she didn’t recognise and warned other staff to check their records.
“I went through a very bad mental state,” she said. “I lost sleep. I was wondering what else she was stealing from me – she had our tax file numbers, our bank details — what else had she tried to get in our names?”
Another worker said she found a prescription for paracetamol/codeine dispensed in a suburb far from where she lived.
“In my messages, I noticed Hayley asked me to send my Medicare details and date of birth two days before the prescription was dispensed,” the worker said.
“She said [she needed the details] for her files. It didn’t click with me. I had no clue.”
Challita was stood down from EduKare in March.
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