Employees and locums at three pharmacies say they are owed thousands after a takeover ended in insolvency.
They told C+D they have resorted to food banks, been left in “severe debt”, and have fallen ill “due to the awful stress”, with one staff member claiming the pressure landed her in hospital, where she “had a miscarriage”.
A group of 14 locum pharmacists working for Blackbrook, Somerset Bridge and Victoria Park pharmacy told C+D that the branches in question were run by SD Pharmacy, a company owned by “a group of doctors”, when they stopped receiving payment in July 2024.
Jhoots director Sarbjit Jhooty took over SD Pharmacy on 26 September 2024.
Since then, another four employees at the pharmacies told C+D they began to have issues receiving wages, sick pay, and maternity pay.
On 7 February 2025, SD Pharmacy filed for insolvency in a move that has left staff members being “ignored, redirected, and lied to”, one anonymous pharmacist said.
Read more: Staff struggle to feed their kids after Jhoots missed January wages
Jhoots told C+D yesterday (February 20) that Jhooty took over the company to secure “the longevity of the pharmacies”.
But the “full scale of the debts was not clear” and “the monies owed to pharmacists by SD Pharmacy were for shifts completed prior to [his] ownership”.
The former directors of SD Pharmacy said last week (February 14) that “despite all [their] considerable efforts, [they] were unable to operate these three pharmacies profitably”, adding that they are “sorry to hear” that after the takeover “some of the staff apparently had difficulties with payments”.
Read both companies’ responses in full below.
“Real torture”
One employee told C+D that after Jhooty bought the company in September, by October “staff were struggling to afford a roof over their head, struggling to pay for food for themselves and their children.”
“Twelve of us are still waiting for our money, I am waiting for two months’ pay…and everyone else is waiting for two-three months' pay. Not only that but our pensions have also not been paid since July. The impact on us has been extremely challenging, personally it has affected me massively.
“I have faced some of the most difficult times of my life in regards to the way [Jhooty] has treated me, the amount of stress I went through affected me so badly that I ended up in hospital and had a miscarriage.”
Read more: ‘Deeply troubled’: Town mayor demands Jhoots sorts pay ‘issues’
“I believe this man should never ever be able to work or buy another pharmacy again, it’s like real torture,” she added.
Kaye, the mother of another Jhoots employee, told C+D that her daughter “went off sick from October 2 due to pregnancy complications”, submitting her sick note and maternity pay forms at the same time.
“Still to date she has not received her sick pay which is for October and has not seen any of her maternity pay she has since given birth” in January, she said.
“[Jhoots bosses are] now ignoring my calls, I have worked out they roughly owe her nearly £3,000 pounds which she now needs to be able to clothe and feed her four-week-old baby,” Kaye added.
“Could have cried”
Pharmacy delivery driver Julie said that when “to all the staff’s horror” Jhooty took over, she “could have cried as [she] knew straight away there would be problems, having worked for him previously”.
“I continued to work there, as I loved my little job” but September wages went on to be paid “over seven weeks late”, she added.
“I finally resigned on December 17 as I could no longer work for a company that was not only not paying me but also ignoring every single contact I made with them – I feel like I was bullied into leaving a job that I did actually enjoy,” she said.
Read more: P2U, Jhoots, Enimed: Who made the biggest profits and losses?
“I am owed wages and mileage allowance for October, November and December 24 and my wages for January 25…this is now all in the hands of the employment tribunal at Bristol and fingers crossed I will eventually get every penny I am owed,” she added.
“I do count myself as lucky compared to a lot of my ex-colleagues who were left in severe debt due to the non-payment of wages,” she said.
Read more: Lloydspharmacy: Jhoots rent row leaves town without pharmacy ‘indefinitely’
And Caroline, a fourth staff member who spoke to C+D, said that she has been on sick leave since august “due to having fibromyalgia, which causes me extreme pain, which stress contributes to”.
“I am owed five months sick pay to date plus any holiday I am owed which was about 66 hours [or] £3,324,” she added.
Caroline also claimed that the company reported staff earnings to HMRC “which meant any of us on universal credit were paid less, which meant bills could not be paid – I had to go to a food bank and fight to get help”.
“Cautionary tale”
C+D is also aware of 14 locums claiming to be owed thousands by the company for shifts from last summer.
“From July until the end of September, [SD Pharmacy Ltd] just kept lying to us and promising us that they will pay us, and it never happened,” an anonymous locum told C+D.
“And then eventually, when it came to September, we found out that they were actually selling the company. [They said] ‘we have agreed in our contract that you will all get paid by the new person’ – but obviously that never happened,” they added.
Read more: Jhoots Pharmacy disposing of ‘existing branches’ amid £350k annual loss
They stressed that the new owner, Jhooty, is “just as bad as the previous owners... because the previous ones did the same to us for two months or more, [they] just kept lying and promising that they will pay us”.
One told C+D that they’re owed a total of £16,720, which has had a “huge” impact on their personal affairs.
“I had to borrow money to survive [and] risk losing my house… I’m in the middle of a battle to save it,” they added.
Read more: Lloydspharmacy liquidation: Jhoots branch third premises to be ‘repossessed’
Another said that they “basically had to relocate back to Guernsey to try and get [their] finances back on track…I am probably owed the most and the knock-on effect was that I had nearly three months without income”.
“I can only be involved [in litigation] if it’s no-win-no-fee, as I cannot afford to lose more money,” they added.
Other locums told C+D that they have had to reconsider their future educational plans and are struggling with mortgages due to the missing payments.
Read more: Landlord owed £450k challenges Lloydspharmacy group liquidation
“One of us has reached out to a debt collection firm, and found out that…there’s a £94,000 court judgment recently recorded against the company,” another pharmacist who did a few shifts for the company told C+D.
“The company has negative shareholder funds of £409,000, in the circumstances, there is nothing that I can do to assist,” they said they were told by the debt collection agency.
“We are owed money by a company, the company got sold, nothing got clearer. Now the company is completely shut down…so if nothing, it’s a cautionary tale – don’t do shifts for dodgy institutions,” they added.
Locum issues
Meanwhile, over the last two months some ten additional locum pharmacists from across the rest of the country have approached C+D with concerns about their wages from Jhoots.
One anonymous locum said that they are yet to be paid for December shifts, leaving them “financially in a very bad situation”.
“I am on my last pounds, I have rent and bills to pay, it is not fair,” they said.
Read more: Pharmacy ‘repossessed’ after Lloydspharmacy lease fiasco
Another anonymous locum said that they are also “still waiting on January pay”.
“I handed notice on January 2…with pay already late, it was the third strike for me” – “I refuse to ever work for Jhoots again”, they added.
“I don’t know how many colleagues have not been paid – it seems like the locums that have continued working for them have been prioritised and paid and the ones who have left are being punished.
“I seriously worry I will not receive this money,” they added.
“Full scale of the debts not clear”
Jhoots told C+D yesterday (February 20) that it had been “contacted by SD Pharmacy Limited as they were entering administration, and their three pharmacies were to close”.
“On September 27 Sarbjit [Jhooty] purchased the company to keep the three pharmacies open in an attempt to clear its debts.
“Upon purchasing the company, the full scale of the debts became apparent, and SD Pharmacy Limited has subsequently been put into forced administration.
“Whilst Jhooty sympathises with the situation members of staff find themselves in he has taken over the company with the view to securing the longevity of the pharmacies, but the full scale of the debts was not clear,” it added.
Read more: Jhoots Pharmacy branch receives second bailiff visit in six months
“The monies owed to pharmacists by SD Pharmacy were for shifts completed prior to Jhooty’s ownership,” it said.
“The pharmacies have not traded as Jhoots Pharmacy or been a part of the Jhoots group since their sale to SD Pharmacy Limited,” it said.
“If any members of staff require any assistance, they can contact SD Pharmacy Limited for clarification on sandpharmacylimited@gmail.com,” it added.
“Extremely challenging”
From 26 September, Sarbjit Jhooty, who also goes by ‘Charlie’, was the sole active director at SD Pharmacy after the remaining four directors of SD Pharmacy departed.
Dr William Harris, a GP, Dr Christian Hornung, Dr Sarah Johnson, a GP, and Dr Timothy Norbury all stepped down on September 25 when the deal with Jhooty was made.
Last week (February 14) they told C+D that “running a pharmacy in the current climate is extremely challenging”.
“We regret that, despite all our considerable efforts, we were unable to operate these three pharmacies profitably and needed to find a new more experienced owner to take them forward,” they added.
Read more: Jhoots adds 36 ex-Lloydspharmacy branches to its estate
“We are sorry to hear that after we were no longer directors of SD Pharmacy Ltd, some of the staff apparently had difficulties with payments,” they added.
“We obviously have no information regarding any aspect of SD Pharmacy Ltd from when we ceased to be directors,” they said.
Pay-day chaos
The issues come after C+D last month exclusively revealed that Jhoots pharmacy staff in Hull handed in their notice after a missed January pay-day left them facing eviction and unable to “afford school lunches”.
A week on from pay-day, an anonymous staff member told C+D that they knew of “four stores minimum” in their area that hadn’t received any payment since before Christmas.
Read more: Lloydspharmacy confirms ‘successful sale’ of all community pharmacies
And this month, a Devon town mayor raised the alarm on the “latest issues” at the local Jhoots pharmacy branch, which have seen the town left without its pharmacy services.
The mayor said that the problems included “late payment of wages to staff and no onsite pharmacist”.
