By Neil Trainis

A pharmacy assistant was given a 43-month prison sentence after stealing over £330,000 worth of diabetes testing kits from his pharmacy and selling them online to fund trips to India and Dubai, gambling, prostitutes and purchases of cars.

Abdul Nargoliya, 30, was handed the sentence having pleaded guilty in May last year to theft by an employee and to a charge of concealing, transferring, converting criminal property. He was working for a branch of LloydsPharmacy inside Sainsbury’s in Fosse Park.

The pharmacy launched an investigation in July 2018 after suspicions were aroused when it was discovered over 22,000 kits had been ordered since January 2017 but only 370 kits were sold.

Leicestershire Police said Nargoliya, of Woodboy Street, Leicester, was suspected because the time of the orders placed matched “up to his shift patterns.” CCTV footage also showed him handling the orders.

“It was noticed that during his shifts, the defendant would move the deliveries into a private consultation room and later leave with full carrier bags. During a month when the defendant was on leave, there was a substantial reduction in ordering of the products,” the police force said.

Nargoliya was arrested in July 2018 and his phone was found to have made hundreds of calls to the stock ordering line. Leicestershire Police also said officers found he had negotiated the sale of pharmacy products with “various people."

The Leicester Mercury reported there was evidence “of at least 18 months of illegal activity with Nargoliya sneaking the items he had ordered out of the pharmacy and then advertising them for sale online without any help from others.”

The paper quoted the prosecutor as saying Nargoliya had significantly spent “on cars, travel to India and Dubai and it appears money was spent on prostitution and gambling.”

Leicestershire Police said investigations found Nargolyia “had deposited £429,000 to gambling companies.”

Police Sergeant Mike Archer said: “Nargoliya was an employee who abused his position purely for his own financial gain. This was a premeditated and planned theft for a substantial sum of money. The consequences of his crimes had a significant impact on his colleagues and his workplace who had trusted in him.

“Thanks to an internal investigation in the company, evidence was presented to police allowing us to take this investigation forward and act quickly to disrupt his offending. I would like to thank the company involved for their co-operation and patience throughout this investigation and court hearings.”