Pharmacy technician Tom Hennebry, registration number 5040378, has been removed from the register for showing “little or no remediation” after “using cocaine” on work premises and receiving “two terms of suspension” totalling 18 months, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has revealed.
In a remote hearing on April 13, a fitness-to-practise (FtP) committee heard that Hennebry had previously been given a six-month suspension in September 2024 after attending work “under the influence of cocaine” and being convicted “of “possessing a controlled drug of class A”.
When the suspension was reviewed last April, the committee found that there was a “lack of any evidence” to suggest his drug use had been “addressed or mitigated” and concluded that a “further period of suspension of 12 months” was necessary, hearing documents said.
Read more: ‘Sniffer dog’: Pharmacy technician who took cocaine ‘every morning’ suspended
At last week’s hearing, the GPhC argued that Hennebry had “taken none of the suggested action” from previous hearings, and the pharmacy technician even admitted he “had not read the suggestions” given to him by the first reviewing committee.
It recognised that he had “not contested the allegations” and “sought help from his GP and an addiction charity”.
But, as before, it stressed that “taking Class A drugs into the workplace is especially brazen and could suggest attitudinal problems”.
“Sniffer dog”
Hennebry was working as a pharmacy technician at St Pancras Hospital when he was “picked out by a ‘sniffer’ dog handler team” in May 2023, whose search revealed “a red tube-like object used for sniffing” and “two wraps of a substance”.
The committee at his first hearing heard that he initially stated he “found them on the ground of the streets on his way to work”, but ultimately “confirmed that they were wraps of cocaine and were for personal use”.
The police were subsequently called and he “was arrested”, the regulator noted at the time.
Hennebry told the police that “he had used a line of cocaine and that was why he was late to come into work that morning”, it said, adding that witnesses present during the sniffer search said he had admitted to taking “drugs every morning [before he] came into work”.
Read more: ‘Exceptional’ pharmacist suspended over cocaine and ecstasy confession
At this month’s hearing, the committee highlighted that there was “no information from [Hennebry] about whether or not he is still using illicit drugs, or any detail about what steps he has taken to rehabilitate himself”.
There is “no evidence” that he has “shown insight into the circumstances” or provided any “reflection of the impact of his behaviour on public safety or on the reputation of the profession”, it added.
The committee found that there was a “risk of repetition” which could cause “harm to others”, also noting that “irrespective of any future risk of harm, a finding of impairment is still necessary to mark the seriousness of what has occurred”.
Class A drugs
The GPhC stressed that due to the “involvement of class A drugs” and the lack of remediation, no action or imposing a warning would be “inappropriate”.
It noted that “there had been no reduction in the gravity of the misconduct and criminal offence committed” by Hennebry, adding that he had “made no attempt to display any insight since the first hearing”.
Hennebry “had served two terms of suspension which totalled 18 months” - and in that time, had “failed to engage with the regulatory process in any meaningful way”, it highlighted.
Read more: Pharmacist struck off after death threats, harassment and cocaine use
“Taking account of the seriousness of the matter, the committee concluded that the appropriate and proportionate sanction was of removal,” the regulator said.
Read the determination in full here.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact Pharmacist Support by emailing info@pharmacistsupport.org or calling 0808 168 2233/0808 168 5133 for free
