A pharmaceutical dispenser who received a suspended sentence for stealing anxiety medication from his employer before selling them to other people has been jailed for repeating the same crime some 10 years later.

Irfan Patel, 38, worked for the Euro Garages Beehive Pharmacy, in Blackburn, and in June last year began ordering boxes of painkillers Tramadol and Dihydrocodeine, when he was not authorised to do so, and took them home without permission.

Preston Crown Court heard that on June 1, he received 10 boxes from an order and took nine of them.

Two weeks later he placed an order for 10 boxes of drugs using his personal mobile phone and home address but from his work account, and kept all 10.

Lancashire Telegraph: Irfan PatelIrfan Patel (Image: Lancs Police)

And then between June 4 and June 30 he ordered and stole around another 30 boxes.

Patel, who is blind in one eye and has a serious heart condition, was caught by his employer after being seen on CCTV taking boxes from the pharmacy.

Holly Menary, prosecuting, said: “The total value of the drugs was around £440.

“He accepted what he had done when confronted by his manager, was arrested and interviewed, and admitted the offences.

“He said he had done it as a favour for an acquaintance who had a sick relative in Pakistan and was under the impression the drugs would be sent there.

“He stole the drugs in return for cash, but only £140.”

Patel has two previous convictions for 14 offences, 12 of which were fraud by false representation in 2009 for which he received a suspended sentence.

The other two were near identical offences in 2012 when he stole diazepam and pregabalin from an employer for onward supply. For that he also received a suspended sentence.

Ms Menary went on: “He used the pharmacy business as a cover and abused his position as a dispenser.

“A pharmacy requires a level of trust in its employees due to the nature of the stock it keeps.”

In mitigation for Patel, Charles Brown said his client admitted the offences at the first opportunity and had been frank and co-operative with the police, but had been placed under pressure from the person buying the drugs from him.

He said: “He’s brought shame upon his family by his criminal offending and is in need of assistance to correct his way of thinking.”

Recorder Daniel Prowse said Patel “knew the seriousness of what he was doing as he did the same thing 10 years ago”.

He went on: “Just as you did in those cases you gave the drugs to another and were paid for your trouble.

“Again, you were given a choice and again you were given a suspended sentence.

“Despite this, you went, and albeit a decade later, to commit similar offences.

“I do not accept you were directed under the order of another – you chose to steal drugs that you then sold on.

“You are not of realistic prospect of rehabilitation and the seriousness of this reoffending can only be marked by immediate custody.”

Patel, of Langham Road, Blackburn pleaded guilty to supplying Class B and C drugs and two counts of theft by employee and was jailed for six months.