A superintendent pharmacist has been struck off the professional register and another suspended for submitting false prescription payment claims.  

Superintendent and company director Benedict Nkemdilim Babundo, registration number 2042885, made misleading payment claims in a "calculated course of dishonest conduct", the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) ruled at a fitness-to-practise hearing on September 24.  

Superintendent pharmacist Catherine Omotoke Osibanjo, registration number 2044549, who was joint stakeholder at Mr Babundo's company, went along with the plot to transfer prescriptions from one of their pharmacies to another that was up for sale, thereby inflating the value of the business, the GPhC heard.

The GPhC found that superintendent Benedict Nkemdilim Babundo, registration number 2042885, was guilty of attempting to manipulate prescription volumes	More on fitness to practise CPD no-show sees pharmacist struck off and 126 at risk Hospital pharmacist struck off for stealing and taking cocaine Hospital technician warned for deliberately allowing labelling error
	The GPhC accepted that Ms Osibanjo had "some insight and remorse" into her actions and that Mr Babundo had a previously unblemished record. But it ruled that both were guilty of attempting to manipulate prescription volumes.

Mr Babundo was the superintendent pharmacist and a director of three London pharmacy companies when they made false prescription claims between August 2007 and July 2008.  

Each of the three companies claimed for roughly twice the number of items they actually dispensed over that period, the GPhC heard. This resulted in more than 94,000 excess items being claimed - which it ruled "could not possibly be as a result of innocent human error" - and an NHS owings bill of £27,000.  

Another pharmacy where Mr Babundo was company secretary and that Ms Osibanjo ran, Naraines Pharmacy, started to make excess claims in 2008. The pharmacy was experiencing financial difficulties and was up for sale before Mr Babundo suggested excess claims would help facilitate the sale, the GPhC heard.  

Ms Osibanjo said Mr Babundo had transferred prescription items from the other three pharmacies to Naraines to be submitted for payment.  

The police launched a criminal investigation into the matter, but the case was dropped and never went to court.  

Ms Osibanjo said she was not intentionally dishonest, and thought their stamping system made it clear that Naraines had not actually dispensed the items. But the GPhC dismissed Ms Osibanjo's claims, and ruled that she could have included an explanatory note in the prescriptions if she wanted to make the situation clear. She also signed the standard declaration saying all submitted prescriptions were dispensed on the premises.  

It said Ms Osibanjo had demonstrated some insight by admitting she had acted inappropriately, and ruled to suspend her rather than remove her from the register.  

But there was no evidence Mr Babundo had taken any remedial action, the GPhC said, because he had failed to engage in the disciplinary process and did not attend the hearing.  

The GPhC said Mr Babundo's dishonesty was aggravated by its "duration, its sophisticated method and the fact it was premeditated" and ruled to strike him off the register.