Struck-off surgeon tested positive to cocaine five times,magistrate not told

A magistrate handling the case of struck-off surgeon William Mooney,who was caught with cocaine in a Bondi drug bust last year,was not told that Mooney had tested positive to cocaine usage on five previous occasions,a tribunal has heard.

Mooney gave evidence before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) on Monday in an attempt to be reinstated as a doctor.

In April 2022,the celebrity nose surgeon was stripped of his medical licence after a tribunal found his negligence had resulted in the deaths of two patients. Mooney also lied about a relationship with a third patient and provided a false medical certificate to cover up his failure to attend mandatory drug testing for cocaine use.

Six months after his banning,Mooney was arrested after collecting a bag of cocaine from a Corolla-driving dial-a-dealer outside his Bondi apartment.

The tribunal heard that on the night of his arrest,October 22,his partner Gemma Wright told police,“Please don’t do this,guys. This is going to ruin him.”

When the matter came to court in December, Mooney claimed he’d collected the coke as “an act of chivalry” for his partner as he was worried about her collecting the drugs at night from a stranger.

He told NCAT that he’d thrown the bag of coke into the gutter,not because he thought it was the police who were about to nab him,but because he thought it was a potential mugger who was chasing him.

Mooney denied that this was a “false version of events” to try to improve his position before the tribunal.

His barrister also told the Waverley Court magistrate last year that Mooney himself was not a drug user because he’d been subject to drug testing for six years and that during all that time his urine samples were negative.

What the magistrate was not told was that five hair samples had returned trace amounts of cocaine and,on one occasion,ketamine.

Mooney said the decision to omit those positive drug results “was the advice of Dermot Dann,KC”. He told NCAT the five positive tests for cocaine were due to “occupational exposure” during surgery and that those test results showed “I don’t use drugs”.

Mooney added that he could see how this omission could be “misinterpreted” but that it was his fervent belief it was the truth because he had “never used recreational drugs.”

Kate Richardson,SC,for the Medical Council,said that the council had not drawn the conclusion that Mooney’s positive results were due to occupational exposure. Instead,the trace amounts were not enough to determine whether it was recreational use or surgical exposure.

Although Mooney had agreed not to use cocaine in his own surgeries following a disciplinary hearing in 2018,he told NCAT on Monday that the ongoing positive results were possibly due to trace amounts on cups or taps used by other ENT surgeons.

Richardson told the tribunal that urine samples reflect cocaine usage over the past one to three days,whereas hair tests record usage over the previous three months.

The Medical Council’s barrister also outlined the lengths that Mooney went to avoid previous mandatory hair sample tests,including cutting his hair short and presenting a false medical certificate claiming he was too ill to attend a drug test,when Medicare records showed he was operating on patients.

The tribunal also heard that Mooney had not “attended” two Narcotics Anonymous meetings as he told the magistrate in December. Instead,he said he had watched two online meetings as an observer so he could get insight into “the bad side of drugs”.

In December Mooney escaped conviction,instead receiving a 12-month bond. His NCAT hearing resumes on Tuesday.

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