A ONCE high-flying Northern Irish pharmacist has been found to be "no longer fit to practise" after being convicted of misappropriating large quantities of prescription medicines.
Michelle McPeake, 33, became a drug dealer's drug dealer, over an 11-month period, diverting more than 32,000 tablets of pregabalin, dihydrocodeine, diazepam and tramadol, worth approximately $47,000, to a man who was able to on-sell the medications to the public.
McPeake's payment for stealing the drugs was a supply of cocaine, which she used throughout the period while practising as a pharmacist.
She was arrested outside the pharmacy in which she worked, in Mar 2016, and pleaded guilty to 13 charges including, theft, possessing and supplying controlled drugs and have a medicinal product with intent to supply.
McPeake received a two-year sentence at the Belfast Crown Court, with half to be served behind bars, with the remainder under licence.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland disciplinary committee decided to strike out McPeake's registration rather than suspend her from practising as a pharmacist, saying, "to impose any lesser sanction would undermine trust and confidence in the profession of pharmacy and the Society in its regulatory function".
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