Mohammed Saeed-Khan, owner of Khan Pharmacy in the city’s Harehills area, was the subject of BBC programme The Sheriffs are Coming, broadcast on March 19.

In the programme, two employees of collection agency The Sheriffs Office visited his pharmacy with a BBC camera crew – “without my consent”, Mr Saeed-Khan claimed – to attempt to recover a debt of £9,000 owed to a generic medicines wholesaler.

The visit was prompted by a court judgment made against Mr Saeed-Khan, who had failed to enter a defence when the supplier had taken legal action.

Speaking to C+D after the broadcast, Mr Saeed-Khan said he understood the supplier’s decision to take legal action and did not contest the court judgment. The balance of the debt will be paid off within “another couple of months”, he pledged.

However, he fears the negative publicity from the BBC programme will put his career and business at risk.

“[We all know] how difficult it is right now, especially being a 100-hour pharmacy; it is a struggle. For [the BBC] to jeopardise that further by putting me in this sort of light in national and international media is a further erosion of my business as well as my own personal, professional integrity,” he told C+D.

Mr Saeed-Khan accrued the debt after being forced to take two months off work to receive treatment for an abscess in his ankle, he explained.

“There was a £16,000 bill I had to pay for locum cover. After that I wasn’t able to work full-time – I had to get locums, so that cost the business more money,” he said.

“In hindsight, if I had dealt with [the wholesaler] directly and made arrangements with them, I’m sure they would have put [a payment arrangement] in place.”

“[The BBC] made me look as though I’ve committed some mega million-pound fraud or robbery and made me look like a villain,” he added.

What should you do if your pharmacy hits the headlines for the wrong reasons? Read C+D's feature – including top tips for handling unwanted media attention – here.