A court in Scotland has found a pharmacist guilty of sexually assaulting a woman during a consultation in a pharmacy.

Glasgow Sheriff Court heard Tauqeer Azam, 41, who was bailed and put on the sex offenders register and will be sentenced next month, carried out an inappropriate examination of the 19-year-old at Well Pharmacy in Nitshill in June 2023, according to Glasgow Live.  

The woman had gone to the pharmacy to seek help for an intimate medical issue. The court heard Azam tried to persuade her to show him a photograph of her problem, insisting it was “more common” to make a diagnosis that way because of the “sensitivity” of the issue.

When the women told him she did not have a photo, he said he would take a look and claimed she consented. He told her there was a “supply issue” with rubber gloves and conducted a physical examination without wearing any.

She said Azam touched her in an intimate part of her body, a claim he denied, although he conceded he made contact with her leg when she sat down. The woman also claimed he made a sleazy remark to her but Azam said she had lied.

He was given an interim suspension by a General Pharmaceutical Council fitness to practise committee in November last year.

The GPhC told Independent Community Pharmacist the suspension will remain in place while the case is investigated before being considered at a principal hearing. However, the GPhC did not say when it will conclude its investigations.

Azam was also convicted of making inappropriate remarks to a woman while carrying out an examination at a branch of Boots in Edinburgh in May 2021.