Guisborough Pharmacy has thanked patients for their “incredible support” after the premises was “broken into and subjected to terrible vandalism” by teenage boys who have pleaded guilty to burglary.
Cleveland Police this week (November 4) said that “the 16 and 17-year-old boys were arrested at the scene” at “Guisborough Medical Centre on Saturday November 2”.
Read more: Pharmacist pleads not guilty to causing death of teen by careless driving
Two days later, the teenagers “pleaded guilty…at Teesside Magistrates Court to burglary, assaulting an emergency worker and racially aggravated public order”, it added.
“Both boys were issued with youth offender rehabilitation orders by the court,” it said.
Over the weekend, the force revealed that it was called to the premise at 4am after receiving reports that “a number of males were causing damage to the windows and had entered the premises”.
“Devastating”
In a message to patients via Facebook on Sunday, the pharmacy said that the teens left behind “overwhelming” damage after “destroying equipment, phones and IT systems in an attempt to render [the pharmacy] non-operational”.
After staff “working tirelessly to restore” the premises over 48 hours, the post announced that Guisborough Pharmacy would be “operating as usual” from the next day, although it warned that “there will unfortunately be delays and some inconvenience for this week”.
“This break-in was devastating and though we may not understand why it happened, we’re determined to rise above it,” it said.
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“Since we took over from Boots, we’ve dedicated ourselves to serving you, our community, with the utmost care,” it added.
“When we started, we put in over 115 hours per week to get the branch back up and running, rebuilding from scratch and ensuring every prescription was right for you,” it said.
“We’re not a large corporate chain, we’re a local pharmacy committed to providing personal [and] compassionate care to everyone who walks through our doors,” it added.
“Pattern of crime”
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Luke Myer highlighted the incident in parliament.
“Last week in my constituency a fire was started in Marton, shop fronts smashed in Guisborough, a pharmacy broken into and its contents burglarised and staff assaulted,” he said.
Read more: Car crash closes Kamsons chemist after confused driver ‘smashed into wall’
“Police officers responded and arrests were made, but those are not individual, isolated incidents—that is a pattern and picture of crime across the country,” he warned.
Meanwhile in April, a man has was charged after a woman was attacked with a brick and a stick outside a Stoke-on-Trent Pharmacy and a former boxer stepped in to intervene.
And last month, a pharmacist pleaded not guilty to causing the death of an 18-year-old by careless driving after a crash with the teenage motorcyclist near Brighton in the summer of 2022.
