Two pharmacists have been struck off the register for inventing false employees to conceal low staffing levels at their 100-hour pharmacy.

Mohammed Anwar Miah, registration number 2065399, and Hazrat Ali, registration number 2068629, recorded names of "phantom pharmacists" in their paperwork to avoid alerting the PCT to their lack of employees, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) heard at a nine-day fitness-to-practise hearing that began on March 31.

The two pharmacists, who both held senior positions at the parent company of the 100-hour pharmacy in Birmingham, also "pressurised" an employee to act as one of the bogus pharmacists, the GPhC heard.

The GPhC noted that the pharmacists had not acted for financial gain but instead to conceal their "practically impossible" working hours. Although the regulator recognised each pharmacist had expressed remorse, it remained doubtful about their insight into their "devious and unscrupulous" behaviour.

Mohammed Anwar Miah, registration number 2065399, and Hazrat Ali, registration number 2068629, were found by the GPhC to have pressurised an employee to act as a bogus pharmacist	More fitness-to-practise cases Boots pharmacist struck off for falsifying MURs Contractor struck off for defrauding Royal Mail of £500,000 Boots pharmacist struck off for failing to report dispensing errors
	Mr Ali and Mr Miah ran the company Inspired Outlook Ltd, which opened two pharmacies in the Birmingham area in 2011. Mr Ali was the only pharmacist in one of them – the 100-hour White Pearl Pharmacy in Sparkhill – to "save money and build up their business resources".

But the pair recorded the names of three other pharmacists in the responsible pharmacist log, standard operating procedures and PCT monitoring forms because of their fears that they were breaching European working hours legislation.

In March 2012, the GPhC received a complaint about the pharmacy dispensing methadone improperly, which prompted an inspector visit. The complaint was not upheld but the visit "opened a kind of Pandora's box", the GPhC heard.

There was no pharmacist present at the time of the visits because Mr Ali had gone home to look after his injured father, but a Mr Hameed was named on the responsible pharmacist notice. Mr Miah told an unqualified employee to pose as the "phantom pharmacist" Mr Hameed to avoid arousing the inspector's suspicions.

But the inspector was not satisfied and asked to see Mr Hameed again in April. Mr Ali and Mr Miah then held a "number of meetings" with the employee to convince him to pose as Mr Hameed for the next visit. The employee told the GPhC that Mr Ali in particular had threatened him with dismissal if he failed to comply and had pointed out he could risk a prison sentence for his involvement so far.

The employee's wife phoned the PCT to report the situation and the GPhC started an investigation. The pharmacists initially tried to "deceive and lie their way out of trouble" and used the fraudulent names weeks after the forgery was uncovered, the GPhC heard. But they eventually co-operated in September once the "game was up".

The GPhC said it had no grounds to believe the pharmacists were now fit to practise. Although it recognised Mr Miah "may have played a lesser role" in the some of the dishonesty, it condemned the pair's "prolonged and systematic dishonest practices" and ruled to strike them both off the register.

Read the full case here

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