NHS Penalty - Expired exemption cert - Help please!

Cloth_of_Gold

NiJella said:

jlfrs01 said:

NiJella said:

I shall attempt to explain this and hopefully it may be considered that I was misled. 

I'm not so sure it's a case of being misled, maybe a matter of an unintentional mistake on the Pharmacist's part who probably was reading off a note on their system. Let me put it this way - if they had said correctly at the time of collection that the certificate had expired, would you have paid as anybody else would have to? The NHS has written to your Partner because it is his responsibility and he is liable to pay for any medicine which should have been paid for. 

Thank you. Without question I would have paid had I known the cert had expired. I agree the script is to be paid for, I don't agree that my partner should pay a hefty fine for (as you say) an unintentional mistake on the Pharmacist's part or on my part. I understand that it may be your opinion that in this case my partner should have to pay the fine, that is fair enough, I am here for people's thoughts on this case. 

However going back to my original post according to the research I found:

The patient has a defence if there is no evidence that they acted wrongfully. This defence is based on fact: the patient (or their representative) either made the claim of they did not and the authorised/delegated officer either has evidence of this or they do not. 

My partner (the patient) has not acted wrongfully as their representative (me) did not make the claim. I was advised that he had a valid cert, I believed this to be fact, I did not tick or sign anything on the script. 

If the conclusion is that my partner has to pay the fine then so be it, I shall explain what happened and see if there is any grace. I will let you know!

Thanks again.

Is there any chance that the pharmacist confirm in writing, e.g. an email, that they mistakenly gave you incorrect advice (probably not)? If they will you could include this in your appeal. Even if they won't presumably you will be saying this and you can also say that not only was this done in error by you, who as the representative did not know the cert had expired but also it is a first 'offence' and could they exercise discretion and just give a warning.