A pharmacy technician has been given an official warning after she was caught with £40 worth of cocaine in a nightclub.

Rhian Woolley, registration number 5024408, was arrested and cautioned by police for possession of the class A drug in January 2012, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) heard at a fitness-to-practise hearing on February 4 this year.  

The GPhC said it was satisfied Ms Woolley showed "genuine insight and remorse" and that she had been "especially vulnerable" at the time of the offence. But it ruled that she was likely to have "diminished public confidence in the profession" and warned she would face more severe consequences from any further criminal conduct.

Police were called to Sax Nightclub in Bridgend, south Wales, where Ms Woolley and a friend admitted to possession of a bag of cocaine, the GPhC heard.

Rhian Woolley, registration number 5024408, received a warning from the GPhC following her arrest for the possession of a class A drug	More fitness-to-practise cases Pharmacist suspended for lying about housing benefit Locum suspended for plagiarising colleague's coursework Boots manager struck off for stealing perfume testers
	Ms Woolley was taken to a police station, where she told the medical assessor she had been going through a "rough patch" and had been persuaded by a friend that cocaine would "make her feel better", the GPhC heard. Ms Woolley said she had snorted a couple of lines and denied ever having taken the drug before.

In evidence to the committee, Ms Woolley said she had been experiencing " a low point" at the time of the incident. She had been "in the throes" of dealing with a number of health issues relating to herself and close members of her family and she had been off work with an injury at the time of the incident.

Ms Woolley said she had since "severed her connection" with her friend and was "much more cautious" about her social arrangements. Her current job did not require registration, but Ms Woolley said she hoped to return to work as a registered technician in the future.

The GPhC also noted that Ms Woolley was one of a select group redeployed by her employers after redundancy, showing her value to them and "by extension, to the profession and the public".

The GPhC said there was was no doubt that the use of an illicit drug by a pharmacy technician, even on one occasion, was "likely to have diminished public confidence in the profession".

But there was little more Ms Woodlley could have done to demonstrate her insight and remorse as well as her resolve that nothing like this should happen again, it concluded.

It warned that Ms Woolley's "adherence" to both the law and the profession must be "uppermost" in her mind at all times.

Read the full case here.

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