Nadeem Rafiq, registration number 2055528, left his colleague feeling “upset, threatened and intimidated” after “sexually assaulting her”, a General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) Fitness to Practise (FtP) committee last month (October 1-2) found.
While working as the responsible pharmacist at Buchans Chemist, Birmingham on January 3 2023, Rafiq sent his dispenser colleague a WhatsApp message that read “don’t sit next to me...u turning me on”, according to the hearing document.
He then “approached her from behind and squeezed her left buttock” in a move Rafiq claimed was “unintentional” but GPhC analysis of CCTV footage found was “pre-meditated”, it said.
Read more: Superintendent’s FtP restored after ‘home brew’ drunk delivery van crash
Later in the day, he sent the dispenser a slew of “crazy” WhatsApp messages confessing his “feelings” and asking her to “tell [him] to stop”, after which the dispenser blocked him and left the pharmacy.
She told the committee that returning to the pharmacy some six weeks later, having asked the owner to instead work at a neighbouring branch, Rafiq was “vindicative towards her for reporting the sexual assault”.
His “vile” behaviour included shouting “to harass, intimidate and retaliate against her”.
Read more: Pharmacist empties Tesco of Ozempic for own private weight loss patients
The regulator accepted that, “a pharmacist with over 20 years’ experience”, Rafiq “offered an apology of some sort and has said that he no longer contests the allegations”.
He “has said that such misconduct will never happen again,” it added.
But it found that he “does not have an unblemished record, having already been suspended for four months following a FtP principal hearing” and that his behaviour was “acutely aggravated” and “sexually motivated”.
“Isolated, unwanted and a failure”
The hearing document revealed that, at the time of the sexual assault, Rafiq’s FtP hearing for a separate incident was “very near its date”.
In March 2023, the GPhC committee found that while working at the same pharmacy in 2020 Rafiq “supplied codeine linctus to between four or five people” several times a week while “suspecting that [they] were abusing or overusing a habit-forming medicine”. Read the full hearing here.
In January 2023, he “felt incredibly isolated, unwanted and a failure – he felt that he had failed his family, children and the profession and its standards,” the GPhC heard.
Read more: ‘Sniffer dog’: Pharmacy technician who took cocaine ‘every morning’ suspended
After learning of the assault, the pharmacy owner issued Rafiq a “verbal warning”, told him “that he needed help and considered that [he] could be going through a nervous breakdown”, it reported.
Rafiq told the committee that he was “was not aiming for [his colleagues] buttocks” but stood next to her for “comfort, consolation and reassurance”.
He stressed that after the incident he “was not retaliating” against her but “was just under a lot of stress and frustrated and projected this towards” her.
“Deluded”
Rafiq told the GPhC that the two had been in a “on and of” relationship, including “hand holding”.
“The relationship did not flourish although… [the colleague] was willing to stay over with me and said to give her at least a few days’ notice so that she could make childcare arrangements,” he said.
“I don’t think our hearts were in it, we didn’t go out as planned several times,” he added.
Read more: Woman jailed for ‘catfishing’ as male pharmacist in stalking campaign
The dispenser said she was “stunned” by the claims, adding that Rafiq was “deluded in stating these points”.
“He sent me texts [in which] it is clear that he was the one trying to pursue me, which totally came out of the blue for me” – “why would I need to arrange childcare…when my children are all grown up”, she added.
“Contradictory”
The GPhC found that Rafiq appeared to be “testing the waters to see if [his colleague was] interested in him”.
The committee said that his evidence was “muddled, unsupported and contradictory” and found a “lack of insight and remorse, and limited remediation completed by the registrant”.
Read more: Pharmacy tech suspended for smuggling cannabis into prison ‘in cleavage’
“The committee gave serious consideration to [his] removal” from the register – but said he set “foundation for insight to be developed and his previously demonstrated ability to form insight” and that removal would therefore be “disproportionate”.
“Further, he was praised by the previous fitness to practise principal hearing panel for his whistleblowing” and “provided one character reference in support of him,” it said.
It decided to suspend Rafiq for “12 months with review”. Read the full hearing here.
If you’ve been affected by sexual harassment in the work place, reach out to NAWP , Pharmacist Support or PASS in Northern Ireland for help. Find free materials to raise awareness of a zero tolerance of abuse policies in pharmacies here.
