In early 2015, he was working as a licenced chiropractor in Queenstown, Auckland’s Browns Bay and Waiheke Island when the ACC queried him about his unusually high treatment numbers.
When told his billing practices did not meet the legal threshold for ACC-funded treatment, he undertook to reduce his hours, but his billing behaviour continued.
An ACC complaint to the Chiropractic Board in 2016 led to a police investigation, and to the board charging Cochrane with professional misconduct.
He was first interviewed by the police in 2018, but continued to deny the charges for nearly two years.
Electronic appointments data showed he fraudulently claimed $134,578 from the ACC between March 2015 and October 2016.
In the latest decision, dated May 6 last year, tribunal chairwoman Alison Douglass said Cochrane had admitted his offending was “systematic and deliberate”, and his convictions reflected adversely on his fitness to practise.
The offending showed a “complete disregard for the law and his professional and ethical obligations”, and had damaged the profession’s reputation.
In mitigation, he had admitted the criminal charges, agreed to pay reparation and expressed remorse during a restorative justice meeting with an ACC representative.
The tribunal could not fine Cochrane because he had already been convicted, but ordered him to pay 40 per cent, or $29,200, of the tribunal’s investigation and prosecution costs.
It declined his application for permanent name suppression.
The company under which Cochrane was operating during his offending, which traded as Bodyworks, was put into liquidation in 2017.
