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Two pharmacists who were convicted last year of illegally supplying over 55 million doses of controlled drugs for their own financial gain have been struck off by the General Pharmaceutical Council. 

Mandip Kaur Sidhu and Nabeil Nasr were both removed from the register following separate back-to-back fitness to practise hearings in February after receiving suspended sentences at Southwark Crown Court last May having both pleaded guilty. 

Ms Sidhu, who was director of Pharmaceutical Health Limited in Derby and Mr Nasr, who owned several pharmacies in the North-West of England, had between them supplied 55 million doses of Class C drugs between May 2013 and June 2017, including 47 million doses of diazepam.

Ms Sidhu was first arrested in July 2017 on suspicion of using her company to illegally supply controlled drugs – which in addition to diazepam included millions of doses of zopiclone – and of fabricating an invoice to try and persuade MHRA officers that she had sold medicines to a company based outside the European Economic Area.

She purchased millions of tablets over a four-year period despite not having legally dispensed medicines against a prescription since July 2013.

She was ordered to pay £720,881, while Mr Nasr – who was convicted of wholesale dealing without a licence on top of his illegal supply convictions – was ordered to pay £606,247. Both were also ordered to complete 200 hours’ unpaid work. 

Ms Sidhu made some submissions to the FtP committee in which she said she took responsibility for her actions and should have “made more checks,” also claiming that she had “been unaware that she had required a licence for controlled drugs”.

Mr Nasr was described as not having engaged with the hearing in any substantial way. 

In both cases, it was decided that the seriousness of their convictions were incompatible with continued practice as a pharmacist and that removal from the register was the only appropriate sanction that could uphold public confidence in the profession.