Tasmanian tribunal cancels nurse's registration over fake paramedic qualification and altered transcript
TASCAT found a former Launceston General Hospital nurse used a falsified university transcript and false registration details in repeated job applications between 2020 and 2023.
The Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT) has cancelled the registration of a former emergency department nurse at Launceston General Hospital after finding she relied on qualifications she did not hold, according to The Examiner and Pulse Tasmania.
The case, brought by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia against Lauren Elizabeth Butler, was decided by Senior Member Samuel Thompson. The decision is cited as Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia v Butler [2026] TASCAT 136. Ms Butler did not take part in the proceedings and is understood to live in New Zealand.
What the tribunal found
Between December 2020 and March 2023, Ms Butler applied three times for graduate paramedic roles with Ambulance Tasmania. She claimed a paramedicine qualification from Charles Sturt University, but had not completed the course and had never held general paramedic registration. She supported the applications with false registration receipt numbers, an altered invoice from the national health practitioner regulator and a falsified university transcript. The Examiner reported that the university confirmed the transcript was not genuine.
In 2023 she also claimed a postgraduate critical care nursing qualification she did not hold when applying for two senior nursing roles at the hospital. She resigned after being asked to show cause why her employment should not end.
Her explanations, including that a transcript arrived through a malware email, were found to be misleading and not credible. On the day of a required regulator interview she said she was in hospital; the tribunal found the medical certificate she supplied was fraudulent, as the hospital had no record of her and the named doctor had left about two years earlier.
Orders
Ms Butler was reprimanded and her registration, suspended since June 2023, was cancelled. She cannot apply for registration for three years, must not provide health services until re-registered and must pay the board's costs. Pulse Tasmania reported that Mr Thompson said her attempts to mislead investigators increased the need for deterrence. The tribunal had no information on whether criminal charges had been laid.
Lessons for employers
The fraud was caught only when Ambulance Tasmania contacted the university directly. Health employers can verify registration on the official public register at each application, confirm transcripts with the issuing university rather than accepting copies, and treat unexplained discrepancies between claimed and registered professions as a reason to pause hiring.
This News Desk report summarises information published by the sources above, written in our own words. Persons named in criminal matters are accused, not convicted, unless a court has ruled otherwise. To report an error, use our contact page.
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