Statutory Committee

Striking-off ordered for prescription payment fraud more

Reprimand follows unlawful supplies of Viagra by wholesale more

Striking-off ordered for prescription payment fraud

A Northern Ireland pharmacist who defrauded NHS Scotland of more than £5,000 by falsely claiming payment for prescriptions that had not been dispensed has been ordered by the Statutory Committee to be removed from the Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists.

On 19 July, the committee inquired into the case of John Wesley Gilpin (registration number 1055670), of Dungannon, County Tyrone. The committee had received information that on 25 October 2004, at Stranraer Sheriff Court, Mr Gilpin had pleaded guilty and been convicted of 15 counts of fraud, for which he had been sentenced to community service of 240 hours. The charges related to false claims made between 4 December 2000 and 7 May 2002 for payment for drugs, appliances and services allegedly supplied by the Wigtown Pharmacy, 20 North Main Street, Wigtown, Dumfries and Galloway. The total value of the claims was £5,371.05.

The committee heard that Mr Gilpin first registered with the Society in 1999, having practised in Northern Ireland for some years before that. While he was running a pharmacy in Portadown, he and his wife also acquired the Wigtown pharmacy and another in Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries and Galloway.

A counter-fraud investigator from NHS Scotland told the committee that Mr Gilpin had taken advantage of disorganisation at a health centre in Portadown, where new repeat prescriptions would be generated if previous ones could not be found. Mr Gilpin, one way or another, obtained uncollected prescriptions from the GP practice. He then took them to Scotland, where he caused the manager at the Wigtown pharmacy to submit them to the NHS pricing unit.

In Mr Gilpin’s defence, solicitor Len Murray said that Mr Gilpin had now sold both his Scottish pharmacies to cover a £120,000 bill for breaching his contract with Dumfries and Galloway Health Board. He had also paid off his £5,317.05 debt to NHS Scotland and was no longer practising as a pharmacist in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Giving the committee’s determination, the chairman, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, QC, said that Mr Gilpin had carried out an elaborate fraud over a long period. “It is impossible to conclude that it was anything other than a calculated course of misconduct, and we have little hesitation in finding that his conviction on 25 October 2004 is proved, and consider that the circumstances of the conviction to be such as to render him unfit to be on the Register.

“Notwithstanding the mitigation offered on his behalf by Mr Murray, we conclude that this is a case in which we should give the direction to remove his name from the Register. It is not a single rash incident of dishonesty, but rather a course of conduct carried out over a long period. The NHS had to pay out a considerable sum of money. We note of course that that has now been repaid and a further £120,000 has been paid to the Dumfries and Galloway Health Board.

“ Nevertheless, weighing up the interests of Mr Gilpin against the public interest, we have concluded that he has not acted with integrity and probity. He has allowed his personal and professional conduct to fall well below acceptable standards and his behaviour has brought the profession into disrepute. In all the circumstances we have considered this an appropriate case to direct the removal of his name from the Register.”

The chairman added that, through Mr Murray, Mr Gilpin had undertaken not to practise within the jurisdiction of the Society for some five years, but of course that jurisdiction only extended to England, Scotland and Wales. On the contrary, the committee expected the Society to intimate the committee’s decision not only to the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland but also to the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland.

Mr Gilpin had three months in which to appeal against the decision.

Reprimand follows unlawful supplies of Viagra by wholesale

A London community pharmacist who mad unlawful wholesale supplies of Viagra and other prescription-only medicines has been reprimanded by the Statutory Committee.

On 21 July the committee inquired into a complaint by the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, which alleged that, on 20 April 2004, Peter Ian Herman (registration number 63167) had received a formal caution from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for the offences, which he had admitted, of “distributing by way of wholesale dealing products to which Directive 2001/83/EC applied otherwise than in accordance with a wholesale dealer’s licence, contrary to Sections 8 (3A) and 45 (1) of the Medicines Act 1968”.

The caution related to supplies made on 18 dates between 25 April 2001 and 9 September 2002. All but one of the supplies included Viagra tablets. Other products supplied at various times were Ciproxin, co-proxamol, doxycycline, Levonelle 2, Regaine, Reductil, Uprima, Xenical, zopiclone and Zyban. The total value was more than £150,000.

The committee heard that until 19 January 2005 Mr Herman was proprietor of Peter’s Pharmacy, 55 Paddington Street, London W1. On 20 April 2001 the pharmacy received a fax purporting to be from an organisation called Clinical Supplies with a registered office in Malaga, Spain. The fax showed the organisation’s proprietor as a Dr D. Fairhurst. Neither Clinical Supplies nor Dr Fairhurst was known to Mr Herman.

The unsigned fax asked for quantities of Viagra and Xenical at wholesale prices. It said that once payment arrangements were completed, the organisation’s British agent would contact the pharmacy to arrange shipping.

On 23 April 2001 an unidentified person attended the pharmacy purporting to be from Clinical Supplies. Mr Herman supplied this person, whom he had not met before, with the quantities of Viagra and Xenical set out on the faxed request and was paid £7,716.44 cash.

Between 24 April 2001 and 8 September 2002 Mr Herman received a further 17 faxed orders for medicines. From 4 August 2001, the name of the organisation changed to Clinica Supplies and the name of the purported proprietor changed to Dr T. Fairhurst. Neither Clinica Supplies nor Dr T. Fairhurst was known to Mr Herman.

The medicines ordered via the additional faxes were all delivered to representatives of Clinical/Clinica Supplies when they attended at the pharmacy. Payments were made variously by cash and bank transfers.

During an interview with MHRA investigating officers on 19 December 2002, Mr Herman admitted that he had made no checks to establish whether Clinical/Clinica Supplies was a bona fide company and entitled to receive the medicines it ordered. He admitted that, as far as he could recall, his first introduction to Clinica Supplies had been the initial fax. He said that he had assumed the purported proprietor was a doctor practising in Spain.

Giving the committee’s determination, the chairman, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, QC, said that he was troubled that the EC directive had not come into effect until November 2001, after the first eight supplies had been made. To some extent his concern was academic, because the directive had undoubtedly been in force when the other 10 supplies were made.

It had been argued on behalf of the Society that the committee could have regard to all 18 supplies because they were all offences under the Medicines Act. However, in its Notice of Inquiry the Society, not once but twice, relied on the specific terms of the directive. Because of that, the committee would stay with its preliminary assessment and only find the 10 later offences established.

The chairman said that Mr Herman had now sold his pharmacy and had indicated that he did not intend to practise again. He had given an undertaking that he would relinquish his practising certificate and would not reapply to join the practising register. In those circumstances, although the committee found the misconduct sufficient to remove Mr Herman from the Register, it would not direct removal but would reprimand him.