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A pharmacist who was convicted three times after repeatedly calling 999 and verbally abusing call handlers, including making homophobic remarks, assaulting a police officer and using threatening behaviour towards a taxi driver has been suspended for six months.

A General Pharmaceutical Council fitness to practise committee principal hearing suspended Paul Martin Gadsden after he received a conviction on September 16, 2022, at Poole Magistrates’ Court for using “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour” towards a taxi driver in Bournemouth on July 18, 2021.

According to a police report, seen by the committee, staff at the restaurant Table Table in Lynton Court called police to report a disturbance “involving a taxi driver and a group of people”.

When police arrived, the taxi driver told them he had been assaulted by Gadsden. The report said he grabbed “a charger cable from within the taxi and aggressively” approached the taxi driver “before striking him multiple times with the cable.”

The report also said Gadsden told the taxi driver he was going to kill him “whilst trying to get the charger cable over his head”. The assault was witnessed by someone who “sat in the taxi at the time and knows (Gadsden) through a friend” and an off-duty Thames Valley Police officer who “intervened as the situation escalated”.

Gadsden left the scene before police arrived but his name, address and telephone number, which were used to book the taxi, were given to police.

Gadsden attended a voluntary police interview during which he said he had been at Lynton Court and ordered a taxi for his group but when two taxis turned up, he admitted being “annoyed”.

“He (said) that whilst his friend [redacted] was trying to get into the back of the taxi with some bags, the taxi driver has moved off. He admitted being annoyed and said to the driver ‘you almost killed him',” the report said.

Gadsden claimed the taxi driver grabbed his arm while he sat in the passenger seat and asked him to leave the car, although “no severe force was used”.

“Gadsden then stated he could not remember anything more specific about what had happened but confirms he later left by getting on a bus. When pressed further about this, he did not provide any further information,” the report said, adding that Gadsden claimed “the taxi driver was aggressive towards him” and shouted at him “rather than him shouting at the taxi driver”.

Gadsden was convicted of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards a taxi driver, intending to cause the person to believe that immediate unlawful violence would be used or to provoke such violence, contrary to section 4(1) and (4) of the Public Order Act 1986.

Smashed on his kitchen floor

On April 22, 2022, he received two convictions. One for persistently using a public electronic communications network for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety, contrary to section 127(2)(c) and (3) of the Communications Act 2003.

The other for assaulting a police constable acting as an emergency worker, contrary to section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018.

Gadsden was fined £500, ordered to pay a surcharge to fund victim services of £55 and ordered to pay costs of £310 for the first offence. In relation to the second offence, he was fined £50. The incidents were laid out in the police report which was shown to the committee.

On May 31, 2021, Gadsden repeatedly called 999 to report that “four to six eggs” had been “smashed on his kitchen floor”. The call handler told him it was not an emergency and “officers would be round when they could”.

However, Gadsden kept calling 999 and “became verbally abusive to staff in the control room and made homophobic comments to them”. As a result, staff become “upset by his calls and constant abuse”.

The report said Gadsden made about 30 calls to police. When the police arrived at his address, they arrested him “for misuse of the 999 system” but he “became increasingly agitated and was shouting and swearing the in street”.

“He was advised to stop which he refused,” the report said, claiming he “had clearly been drinking and was acting in a disorderly manner in a quiet road whilst people were trying to sleep”.

The report said while he was in the holding cell, “he was verbally aggressive” to police officers and “kicked” an officer.

‘I should not have been convicted’

In his defence, Gadsden claimed his lodger threw “eggs around his kitchen” and “caused him to be worried about his own safety”.

Gadsden said that after leaving the property, the lodger “smashed up” his bedroom door “with his bare hands” and “smashed the glass” in the front door. Gadsden also said the lodger had “hidden alcohol everywhere” and had “broken the washing machine”.

Refuting the report’s claim that he rang the police 30 times, Gadsden told the committee the police, “instead of carrying out proper diligence and researching what he had told them” about the lodger, “had done nothing”.

He said the police should have “dragged” the lodger “out of the house, not me” and denied assaulting the police officer. Gadsden said his solicitor told him to plead guilty. “I should not have been convicted. I could not afford to appeal,” he said.

A separate allegation of wilfully obstructing a police officer in the execution of his duty was not pursued. The committee concluded Gadsden breached standard six outlining that pharmacy professionals must behave in a professional manner.

Claimed the committee was ‘racially unbalanced’

In its report, the committee said he applied for it to withdraw from the case on the second day of the hearing, July 14, 2026, because most of the committee were “not white British” and claimed the committee was “racially unbalanced”.

“He submitted there would be bias against him and this had an obvious impact on him,” the report said. Gadsden also asked the committee to clarify it was “independent from the police”.

The committee told him it was “independent from the Council” and “had nothing to do with the police and was independent of the police too”. Gadsden withdrew his application.

The committee noted he “accepted he was wrong being rude” to the police operator and “should not have shouted at the taxi driver but maintained he had been assaulted himself by both the police and the taxi driver”.

Gadsden told the committee he had joined the Salvation Army “to do good work for the public” and “referred to the activities he was doing regularly in relation to this including worship every Sunday and during the week”.

However, the committee concluded he had “shown limited insight into his convictions” and had “not shown genuine remorse or regret”.

“Whilst the registrant had made some apologies in his evidence, they were all premised on the basis that he blamed others for causing him to lose his temper,” the committee’s report said.

It considered Gadsden’s “previously long unblemished career of 25 years as a pharmacist” and the fact that “no concerns had been raised about his clinical work as was confirmed in the character references provided”.

The committee also took into account his expression of “some remorse and embarrassment” during the hearing and his indication “he would act differently in future”.

It also heard he self-reported his convictions to the GPhC, was “experiencing challenging personal circumstances particularly in relation to his lodger” and suffered a bereavement before his third conviction which “had impacted on his judgment”.