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LOGAN, Utah (AP) -- A woman who lied about having cancer to avoid facing criminal drug charges has been sentenced to jail time and fines for the scam.
Andrea Shaw, 35, will spend 120 days in the Cache County Jail and pay $2,400 fines under the sentence imposed by 1st District Judge Clint S. Judkins.
Shaw pleaded guilty to charges of one count of forgery and two counts of prescription fraud, all third-degree felonies.
Believing Shaw was ill, prosecutors originally agreed to a plea deal which would kept Shaw out of jail and erased her record if she stayed out of legal trouble for 18 months. But when they discovered she lied about having breast cancer, they withdrew their offer.
The forgery charged stemmed from a fake doctor's letter which said Shaw needed a mastectomy to treat her cancer.
But Dr. Albert Hartman of Ogden's Women's Wellness Center said he never wrote the letter and Shaw later acknowledged writing it herself.
Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
