Nursing licenses obtained with fake credentials from West Palm Beach

At least nine people obtained licenses in the past year to work in Florida as nurses, even though the credentials they used to get them were fake, according to documents obtained . One person has been criminally charged.

They were among more than 30 who applied for licenses with transcripts from the Academy for Practical Nursing and Health Occupations in West Palm Beach, even though they had not finished or never attended the school.

But did they knowingly defraud license boards, or were they duped by others who took large fees to help them “graduate”?

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the phony transcripts, but detectives won’t say what they’ve found or how widespread the problem might be.

And Florida officials can’t say with certainty how many people may be working with licenses they didn’t earn.

According to court documents and sheriff’s reports, the problem came to light in May, when authorities in West Virginia got a tip that someone was submitting doctored transcripts, court documents show.

Florida allows people to obtain licenses in other states, then use those licenses to get Florida certification.

The West Virginia board got 34 applications from people who said they had graduated from the West Palm Beach academy. Of those, 19 either had not finished or never attended, a sheriff’s report said.

Lois Gackenheimer, the academy’s executive director, told The Post in August that she believed copies of transcripts were altered. “A copy’s never accepted as an official transcript, (which) has a raised seal. We knew immediately these had never been sent out by us,” she said.

Of the 19 people whose transcripts were faked, sheriff’s reports show eight got Florida Certified Nursing Assistant licenses before the fraud was spotted. One got a more advanced Licensed Practical Nurse certificate.

Florida health officials say three still have licenses and they have no information on the rest.

Montana officials say they got four phony transcripts, but recognized them as fake and did not issue licenses.

The woman who obtained the LPN certificate, Huberle Gregoire, 51, of suburban West Palm Beach, was charged Aug. 3 with practicing medicine without an active license, a felony.

Gregoire paid $18,000 in 2008 for the academy’s 17-month program but flunked out in 2009.

Even so, she got a West Virginia license in December 2009 that she used to get a Florida license, sheriff’s reports say.

Gregoire told detectives she didn’t know her application to West Virginia showed that she had graduated from the academy.

Transcripts are signed by academic dean Edward Booth, but the signature “was not even close” to Booth’s, sheriff’s reports said.

In May, the West Virginia board yanked Gregoire’s license.

But, reports say, she continued at the Palm Garden nursing home, where she earned about $17,000 a year, until she was arrested four months later.

Gregoire said she went through the West Virginia licensing board because the state allowed unlimited attempts to obtain a license, and Florida doesn’t. The Florida Department of Health says a candidate who fails part or all of an exam three times has to retake classes.

Gregoire “was sorry for what happened but she was in a hurry to take the test,” the sheriff’s report said.

In a brief interview after her arrest, Gregoire said she thought she had graduated from the International Institute of the Palm Beaches in Riviera Beach, which she attended after flunking out of the academy. She said the head of that school “was the one who sent everything.”

In the reports, Gregoire identified her as Rose Kersaint, 54, president of the institute, which she says provides tutoring for nursing students.

Kersaint claimed the culprit is Guy Obert Edmond. In the interview, Kersaint claimed Edmond, 37, showed up last year claiming to be a recruiter from the academy. He said he could help students booted from that school get back in and earn diplomas.

“He spoke well; he was well-dressed,” Kersaint told The Post. “I believed him.”

In March or April, Gregoire told Kersaint her West Virginia license had been revoked.

Kersaint said when she confronted Edmond about Gregoire’s situation, he said he’d look into it, then disappeared. She alleges he’d taken about $60,000 from her students for help he never provided.

Kersaint said she’s working three jobs to repay students money that she says Edmond took.

All she did wrong, she said, was refer students to someone she says was a con man.

“That’s my fault,” she said, but “that was Guy Edmond’s scam.”

Edmond could not be located for comment.

For now, the only person legally held responsible is Huberle Gregoire, who has pleaded not guilty.

Her lawyer, Rosemonde Cely, says, “When the facts come out it will be pretty clear that she’s a victim of fraud.”