Belfast pharmacist Gerard Cullinan has been spared a jail sentence after pleading guilty to making illegal supplies of controlled drugs including over 300,000 co-codamol tablets.  

Last Friday (June 28) Mr Cullinan, who is director of Castlereagh Pharmacy in East Belfast, received an 11-month sentence suspended for three years at Belfast Crown Court. The pharmacy was also fined £8,000. 

He had pleaded guilty in April to two charges concerning the illegal supply of fentanyl between January 2018 and December 2019 and supplying co-codamol from January 2017 to June 2020. 

He also pleaded guilty to a “significant number of record-keeping breaches” with regard to fentanyl, tapentadol, methylphenidate, morphine and oxycodone following an investigation led by the Department of Health’s Medicines Regulatory Group (MRG).  

The sentencing judge described Mr Cullinan’s conduct as a “serious breach of the high degree of trust placed on him as a registered pharmacist” and said the pharmacist had sought to generate extra income “by operating outside the rules”. 

Prosecution lawyers had claimed Mr Cullinan’s profits from the illegal sales “could have run into the tens of thousands of pounds”.  

Discrepancies with regard to missing drug registers were first identified during a routine regulatory inspection in January 2020, when Mr Cullinan was unable to explain why the records were missing. A further inspection found that the pharmacy had bough 3,085 boxes of 100 co-codamol tablets over a period of three and a half years, with 3,000 of these unaccounted for.  

Canice Ward, head of the MRG, commented: “The Department is committed to taking all possible steps to combat this type of illegal activity wherever it may be occurring. 

“This conviction involved the blatant abuse of the privileged position of a pharmacist by diverting a large quantity of prescription medicines, thereby placing the public at risk. 

“People can be assured that pharmacies in Northern Ireland are subject to regular departmental inspection and compliance visits to ensure that they continue to operate safely and within the law.”  

Senior medicines enforcement officer Peter Moore, who directed the investigation, said: “It is a serious criminal offence to sell or supply prescription only medicines without a prescription. Today’s sentence demonstrates that there are serious consequences if a person bypasses the regulated system, which is in place to ensure public safety and the integrity of the medicines supply chain. 

“Patients and the public however can have confidence that we will take decisive action where there has been significant breaches of medicines and drugs legislation.” 

Regulatory body the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has placed interim restrictions on Mr Cullinan’s license to practise since July 2020. The Department of Health said that following the conviction the matter will be “further referred” to the PSNI to conduct a hearing.