CUMMING — Two employees of a Cumming weight-loss center and a medical doctor affiliated with the office face charges in connection with a prescription drug fraud investigation.

According to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, Teresa Vickers, 52, and Mary Wysong, 69, have each been charged with possession of pre-signed blank prescriptions, practicing medicine without a license and distributing prescriptions without a license.

The women, who work at Doctor’s Weight Loss Center on Meadow Lane, are being held without bond at the Forsyth County Detention Center.

Sheriff’s office spokesman Doug Rainwater said the doctor, 81-year-old E. Walter Hood, turned himself in Tuesday afternoon on charges of violation of the controlled substance act and pre-signing blank sheets. Bond has not been set.

“Basically, the doctor would sign prescriptions and when patients came in, they might see the doctor if he was in,” Rainwater said. “But if he was not in, one of the ladies, primarily Vickers, would give patients prescriptions for narcotics in reference to weight loss.

“So they were dispensing [prescriptions] to patients without the patients being seen by a doctor.”

Rainwater said the arrests were made “after a lengthy investigation with search warrants and many interviews” that also involved the Georgia Drug and Narcotics Agency and the Drug Enforcement Administration.