Arrests made after Christmas Day pharmacy break-in
Five people have been arrested in connection with a burglary at a Stoke-on-Trent pharmacy, local police have announced.
Five individuals have been arrested after a pharmacy in Stoke-on-Trent was broken into on Christmas Day, Staffordshire Police announced last week (January 23).
The force said that it received reports of people breaking and entering Queen Street Pharmacy in Burslem “just before 11am” on December 25.
“Intruders forced entry into the building and took a large amount of prescription medication”, the police said.
Following an investigation by local officers, five individuals have now been arrested in connection with the break-in, it added.
All have been released on conditional police bail while enquiries continue, police told C+D yesterday (January 29).
Police reported that of the five, four were arrested “on suspicion of burglary”.
They included a man and a woman in their thirties from the Stoke-on-Trent area, as well as two other men in their thirties with “no fixed address”.
A 30-year-old man from the area “was also arrested on suspicion of burglary and possession of a class B drug”, the force said.
“A quantity of drugs has since been recovered by our officers”, it added.
Police were unable to provide the names and addresses of those arrested and it remains unclear what drugs were stolen.
A “great result”
“This is another great result for local officers”, Stoke North chief inspector Scott McGrath said.
He stressed that the force is “committed to acting on the concerns of local people and businesses”.
“I would like to reassure our retailers that we will continue to do everything that we can to safeguard their businesses and their livelihoods from thieves”, inspector McGrath added.
Police asked that anyone with information on the break-in “get in touch by calling 101, quoting incident 179 of 25 December”.
It comes as Cambridgeshire Constabulary last week announced that a pharmacy dispenser has been handed a suspended sentence for theft by an employee of thousands of temazepam tablets.
