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A Kent pharmacist who has struggled with opiate addiction has been struck off the register after stealing prescription medicines while working at a branch of Paydens and making unwanted sexualised comments to junior colleagues in a Superdrug pharmacy.  

Harpreet Singh Chaggar (2079216) was removed from the register following a remote fitness to practise hearing that concluded last Monday (June 23). 

He had previously been reprimanded by the GPhC for separate instances of medicine theft and inappropriate behaviour with colleagues, in 2017 and 2020 respectively. 

CCTV footage

Mr Chaggar was found to have removed Oramorph and Tramadol from a Paydens Pharmacy branch in Tenterden in November 2022. 

CCTV footage showed him taking Oramorph from a shelf and drinking it, leading to a search of his bag three days later that uncovered six boxes of Tramadol capsules and an opened bottle of Oromorph liquid. 

He was also found to have entered the pharmacy outside business hours without authorisation on one or more occasions. 

During an interview with Paydens investigators that preceded his dismissal, he acknowledged his ongoing use of prescription medicines, including some taken from previous employers and others obtained through illicit channels from individuals he described as “dealers”. 

Mr Chaggar, who at one point had a prescription for naproxen, tramadol and Oramorph and said the drugs “left me in a euphoric state,” had previously been the subject of FtP proceedings in 2017 when it was proved he stole a diazepam from his then employer.

Told a colleague to ‘wear tighter clothing’

The sexual misconduct allegations related to numerous inappropriate comments made to two female colleagues at Superdrug in Canterbury between May-December 2021. 

Mr Chaggar repeatedly commented on the physical appearance and anatomy of colleagues Person A and Person B, including asking one if she was “wearing a thong today” and saying another should “wear tighter clothing to work”. 

Both of Mr Chaggar’s colleagues who gave evidence at the FtP hearing said he had also touched their hair, while Person B said that on one instance he had discussed her performing oral sex on him. 

He claimed there was an atmosphere of “sexual banter” at the Superdrug branch but this was refuted by his colleagues, who said that while joking took place they never made comments of a sexual nature in the workplace and that Mr Chaggar’s comments caused them significant distress.  

He was let go from Superdrug following an internal investigation, and the married father of one told the FtP committee he was “ashamed” of his comments and apologised to his colleagues in his statement. 

Similarly to the theft allegations, it was revealed that Mr Chaggar had received guidance from the GPhC in 2020 warning him not to engage in “overt sexual conversations with young females”. 

In his most recent hearing, he attempted to mislead the council that there had been “no previous complaints made about him as regards comments of a sexual nature” and that he “had never acted like this before”.

It was found that Mr Chaggar’s fitness to practise was seriously impaired by his addiction and by actions that called his integrity into question, as well as a pattern of dishonesty that demonstrated a “reflexive habit of lying and misleading whenever challenged”. 

The FtP committee also noted that after receiving advice in 2020 around his behaviour towards colleagues he had “escalated” his inappropriate behaviour instead of curbing it.

The committee made the decision to remove him from the register, with an interim suspension order put in place during the 28-day appeal period.