Senior health official cleared of fraud charges
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Michael Moodie has been cleared of forging travel expenses. (ABC)
A former senior official with WA's health department has been found not guilty of more than one hundred fraud related charges.
Michael Moodie was accused of forging invoices to falsely claim $6,000 in travel expenses when he was the Chief Executive Officer of the South West Area Health Service in 2004 and 2005.
It was alleged he claimed the money for accommodation in Perth, when he was staying at his own rented homes.
Today Magistrate Robert Black found that while Mr Moodie had acted dishonestly in preparing false invoices, it was not proven that he did so with an intent to defraud the Health Department.
Mr Moodie has applied to the court to be reimbursed for the cost of defending the charges.
Job back
The Health Minister, Jim McGinty, says Mr Moodie is not entitled to have his job back, despite being acquitted of one hundred forging and uttering charges.
"Mr Moodie has been acquitted, he's entitled to the presumption of innocence," he said.
"His behaviour however is such that I think it is incompatible with him remaining a senior public servant in Western Australia."
The Opposition's Christian Porter says the case raises questions about practices in the Health Department.
"What this shows is there have been and may well still be some utterly bizarre practices inside the Health Department and all of this what was said to be a dishonest practice was going on with the knowledge of other people in the department," he said.
"What is going on in the Health Department?"
