discipline summaries
Key Reprimand Points
•D
r. Savic has committed professional misconduct
in several significant ways.
• Dr. Savic has been involved with this College for
several years and significant effort has been made to
address serious practice concerns and to support his
improvement.
• The Committee was very concerned and disappointed that Dr. Savic failed to abide by the terms
of the undertaking signed with the College. Practising medicine is a privilege, and all physicians must
respect their governing body to maintain confidence in the profession’s ability to self-regulate.
Full decisions are available online at www.cpso.on.ca.
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DR. COLIN PETER SINCLAIR
Practice Location: Windsor
Practice Area: General Practice
Hearing Information: Agreed Statement of Facts,
Admission, Joint Submission on Penalty
On October 15, 2014, the Discipline Committee
found that Dr. Sinclair committed acts of professional misconduct, in that he was found guilty of an
offence that is relevant to his suitability to practice;
that he committed an act or an omission relevant
to the practice medicine that having regard to all
the circumstances would reasonably be regarded by
members as disgraceful, dishonourable and unprofessional; and he engaged in conduct unbecoming a
physician. Dr. Sinclair admitted to the allegations.
Criminal Charges under the Controlled Drug
and Substances Act and the Criminal Code
On June 20, 2008, Dr. Sinclair was charged with five
counts of possession of controlled substances for the
purposes of trafficking contrary to section 5(2) of the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The controlled
substances were prescription narcotics including oxycodone and hydromorphone.
On January 22, 2008, Dr. Sinclair was charged in
an 89 count indictment under the Criminal Code alleging 52 counts of fraud and 37 counts of drawing a
document without authority. The allegations related
to issuing prescriptions for narcotics for patients who
did not receive the prescription and for billing insurers and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
(MOHLTC) for such prescriptions.
Criminal Proceedings and Admissions in the
Superior Court of Justice
In the criminal proceedings, which took place between 2011 and 2012, Dr. Sinclair admitted that he
committed the offences for which he was charged.
With respect to the trafficking offences, the admitted facts establish, among other things, that:
(a) On June 19, 2008, Dr. Sinclair had in his medical
office 14,092 tablets of controlled drugs (oxycodone and hydromorphone) with a street value of
$462,880. The controlled substances were not
required for Dr. Sinclair’s medical practice and
were in his possession contrary to the Controlled
Drugs and Substances Act; and,
(b) On June 19, 2008, Dr. Sinclair had in his home:
(i) cash exceeding $400,000 CAD (the total Canadian funds found in his basement was $50,470
and the total of U.S. funds found in the basement was $366,560); and, (ii) sports memorabilia
with an estimated value of $500,000.
With respect to the fraud offences, the admitted facts
establish, among other things, that:
(a) Between January 2005 and April 2008, Dr. Sinclair prepared prescriptions for narcotics for 37
of his patients and presented the prescriptions to
a pharmacy in Ontario. Dr. Sinclair had included
notations on some of these prescriptions;
(b) In each case, the patient named in the prescription was not actually seen by Dr. Sinclair in the
period in question. The prescriptions written for
those patients were later filled by a person other
than the named patient at the pharmacy, and
the named patient did not receive the prescribed
drugs.
(c) In the ordinary course, Dr. Sinclair’s patients
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