A senior pharmacy worker who ran a two-year drug racket at the chemist where she was employed was jailed for 15 months yesterday.
Ann Marie Doyle was caught after a workmate found boxes of tablets that she had stashed in her handbag.
The 44-year-old had been selling pills at the Tollcross Pharmacy in Glasgow that she had been trusted to handle as a drug dispenser.
It emerged almost 25,000 Valium and prescription painkillers were unaccounted for.
A check of Doyle’s phone showed 31 users looking for drugs from her – including heroin.
Doyle appeared in the dock at Glasgow Sheriff Court and pleaded guilty to a total of nine charges of stealing, as well as being concerned in the supply of controlled drugs between February 2019 and December 2020.
Sheriff Owen Mullan said: ‘You were in a position of trust and you will no doubt have seen the dangers and effects of drug abuse.
‘I don’t consider there to be any other method of dealing with you other than custody.’
Fiscal Lauren Sangray said Doyle, of Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, was caught after a colleague went to a communal staffing area, where the senior dispenser’s handbag was on a chair.
Ms Sangray said: ‘Inside, there were ten boxes of diazepam.’ The workmate reported the find to their boss. An investigation was launched and Doyle denied any involvement.
A pill audit was carried out which showed 12,333 diazepam tablets and 12,357 dihydrocodeine painkillers were missing.
Three mobile phones were then found during a search of Doyle’s home. She told officers: ‘I do not know what to say to you. I know myself I did not do it.’
A forensic examination of one phone disclosed the 31 contacts asking for drugs. These included diazepam, temazepam, morphine, diamorphine, fentanyl, pregabalin and tramadol. It was stated that due to the ‘absence of a legitimate explanation, this shows the onward sale of drugs’.
No total value of the drugs dealt was disclosed during the hearing.
The sentencing was told how the mother of one claimed she swapped the pills with her drug supplier for the cocaine which she used at the time.
However, the sheriff said the messages found on her phone ‘failed in the explanation’ of that.
Edward Kelly, defending, said: ‘She had significant addiction issues. She would like to compensate the pharmacy for their loss and she has managed to save money to do that.’