A Lloydspharmacy manager has been suspended for four months for falsifying the appraisal form of a colleague.

Khatereh Arabshahi, registration number 2053652, lied about holding a performance review with another employee and forged their signature on the appraisal form, the General Pharmaceutical Council’s (GPhC) fitness-to-practise committee heard at a hearing on December 3.

The regulator accepted that Ms Arabshahi has an otherwise “unblemished" record and is a “competent and highly-regarded pharmacist”.

But it stressed she had made a "serious allegation" against her colleague by denying their version of events and had ignored a "number of opportunities to accept responsibility".

Lack of appraisals

Ms Arabshahi had been working as a manager at a Lloydspharmacy branch in Colchester for a year when, in December 2013, one of her colleagues filed a grievance that she had received no formal appraisals in six years, the regulator heard. As the colleague's line manager, Ms Arabshahi was expected to carry out appraisals, the GPhC noted.

During an internal investigation of the grievance, the colleague claimed she had asked for an appraisal but had never received one, the regulator heard.

The GPhC heard that as part of the investigation, Ms Arabshahi provided an appraisal document dated July 2013 that appeared to have been initialled by her colleague.

But her colleague denied that such a meeting had taken place, and stressed that she had not signed the document.

Not credible

The regulator said that it did not find Ms Arabshahi’s claim – that her colleague had signed a blank appraisal form and Ms Arabshahi had then completed it following a performance review – to be credible. It noted that the document had been signed with the colleague’s initials rather than their full signature, and this would be easier to forge.

Ms Arabshahi maintained to the GPhC committee that the meeting took place and the colleague had "squiggled" their signature on the document. But the regulator concluded that Ms Arabshahi was neither a "reliable nor a credible witness".

It accepted that her decision to forge the signature was “completely out of character” and was the result of “panic or fear of facing a complaint from her employer” about the lack of performance reviews conducted. 

But it stressed that Ms Arabshahi had been in a "position of trust" at the pharmacy and her failure to reveal the truth amounted to "dishonesty over a prolonged period of time".

It ruled to suspend her from the register for four months, which it recognised would have “serious financial consequences” for her.

Read the full determination here.
 

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