Large quantities of prescription-only medications (POMs) were stolen from a West Derby pharmacy, Merseyside Police revealed this week (February 14).
A Deysbrook Lane pharmacy had reported a burglary at around 9.15am on Monday (February 12), the police said.
Read more: ‘Dishonesty is state of mind’: Pharmacist struck off over unpaid train tickets
CCTV footage revealed that a man had broken into the pharmacy “at around 1.20am” that morning and police described the suspect as “a white male of slim build” who was wearing a grey tracksuit and glasses.
The police said that the man made off with “a large quantity of medication” and warned the public that the medicines posed “serious harm”.
The stolen prescription medicines included diazepam, codeine, co-codamol, pregabalin and zopiclone, according to the police.
Enquiries “ongoing”
Detective inspector Michael Fletcher appealed for people with information “to come forward” to locate the stolen medication and “whoever was responsible”.
Mr Fletcher said that police enquiries were “ongoing” and warned people against taking the medication if they encountered it, as it could “prove fatal”.
The police urged members of the public with “information of the medication” to either hand it in to the police or to turn it into “any pharmacy”.
Read more: Pharmacy manager who stole to pay for mother’s cancer treatment struck off
It comes as C+D reported this week that the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has removed from its register a pharmacist who failed to tell her employer and the regulator about “three convictions for non-payment of train fares”.
In January, C+D reported that Staffordshire Police had arrested five people after a pharmacy in Stoke-on-Trent was broken into on Christmas Day.
Read more: Pharmacy technician convicted after ‘paedophile hunter’ sting struck off
The same month, Cambridgeshire Constabulary announced that a pharmacy dispenser who had stolen thousands of temazepam tablets had been handed a suspended sentence for theft by an employee.
And C+D began the year with a report about an “appallingly callous” pharmacy worker who was jailed for drugging her partner before going on a “shopping trip fraudulently using his bank cards”.
