Abdul Nargoliya, 30, of Woodboy Street in Leicester, was on Friday (May 26) sentenced to 43 months imprisonment at Leicester Crown Court, according to Leicestershire Police.

 

The force said Mr Nargoliya was found to have stolen more than £330,000 worth of diabetes testing kits from the unnamed pharmacy in Leicester where he worked as a pharmacy assistant.

 

Read more: C+D crime in pharmacies investigation

 

An investigation showed he had “deposited £429,000 to gambling companies”, the court heard.

 

Mr Nargoliya pleaded guilty in May 2022 to charges of theft by an employee and to "concealing, transferring, converting criminal property", after being charged in 2020.

 

Internal investigation

 

It followed an internal investigation launched in July 2018 by the pharmacy in which Mr Nargoliya worked after it was noticed that the store had ordered 22,000 diabetes-testing kits since January 2017 but had only sold 370 of them in that time period, Leicestershire Police said.

 

The investigation found that the orders placed with the pharmacy’s stock provider matched up with Mr Nargoliya’s shifts, and CCTV footage showed him “handling” the orders, the police said.

 

Read more: Employee theft: how to proceed following initial suspicions

 

Leicstershire Police said Mr Nargoliya was also seen moving deliveries into a “private consultation room”, from which he would leave armed with “full carrier bags”.

 

There was also a “substantial reduction” in orders for the testing kits during a month where Mr Nargoliya was on leave, the investigation found.

 

Read more: Police chief: Theft in pharmacies may rise as cost-of-living crisis bites

 

The pharmacy contacted the police after conducting its investigation, and Mr Nargoliya was arrested in July 2018.

 

An “examination” of his personal phone found “hundreds of calls to the stock ordering hotline”, and conversations of him “negotiating the sale of pharmacy products with various people”, police said.

 

 

“A premeditated and planned theft”

 

 

Leicestershire Police described Mr Nargoliya’s crimes as “a premeditated and planned theft for a substantial sum of money”.

 

Leicestershire police sergeant, Mike Archer, said that Mr Nargoliya had “abused his position purely for his own financial gain” and that the “consequences of his crimes had a significant impact on his colleagues and his workplace who had trusted in him”.

 

Read more: Theft and fraud most common cause for fitness-to-practise cases

 

The evidence presented to the police by the pharmacy’s internal investigation helped the police to hastily “disrupt his offending”, he added.

 

He continued: "I hope today’s sentence imposed gives businesses [that] suspect they are a victim of crime the confidence to report to us and to know that we will work alongside you to fully investigate and to bring any offender to justice”.