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A former Boots pharmacist who stole three packs of codeine from the branch where he worked and failed to tell the General Pharmaceutical Council about a police caution he received for the offence within seven days has had his suspension extended by six months.

On Monday, the regulator’s fitness-to-practise committee said Sam Haswell, who was already serving an eight-month suspension which was up for review, “provided very limited evidence of reflection or insight” into his behaviour.

Between an unknown date and September 26, 2022, he worked at a branch of Boots in Maddison Street, Northumberland, and from July 24 that year, was signed off sick.

The committee heard he came to the pharmacy during his sick leave and on August 2 and 5, 2022, signed into its information and stock management system without authorisation or without having signed in as a pharmacist.

After entering the dispensary without authorisation, Haswell selected a prescription medicine and carried out an accuracy and clinical check of his prescription before dispensing it. He entered the dispensary unauthorised again on August 20.

In April, May and July 2022, he manually ordered codeine and on one occasion diazepam, and justified the orders as “seasonal” or “services” using the stock management system. 

Haswell ordered 560 tablets of 30mg codeine on April 13 and May 12, 1,120 tablets on July 20 and 420 tablets of 2mg diazepam on July 18. He was given a conditional caution by Northumbria Police on December 7, 2022, for an offence of theft by employee.

At last year’s hearing, the committee concluded Haswell’s “misconduct” and police caution meant his fitness-to-practise was impaired “on public protection and public interest grounds”.

The Committee said there was “a risk of repetition” and his conduct “did pose a risk to employers and colleagues who would not be able to trust the registrant”.

During Monday’s hearing, which Haswell did not attend, the committee took into account “the circumstances of pain and ill-health that apparently led the registrant to dispense his own medication and steal medication” and the “relatively small amount” he stole.

It also considered the efforts Haswell made to address his health issues as set out in medical reports from October 25, 2023 and February 5, 2025.

The committee also heard evidence that he “is a capable and well-regarded pharmacist”. However, it said a six-month extension to his suspension was needed to allow Haswell “a further opportunity to demonstrate meaningful progress”.

“The registrant continues to describe his conduct as ‘removing medicines from the pharmacy’ rather than acknowledging that he stole them,” the committee said in its report.

“The public would regard this conduct as dishonest and the registrant’s failure to characterise it accurately indicates that his insight is not fully developed.”

It also said Haswell’s actions – “filling in his own prescription and manually ordering substantial quantities of medicines over several months” – were “broad and repeated failures of integrity and professionalism”.