FRAUDULENT prescriptions being used to obtain drugs is taken seriously, pharmacists say.

Michael Repton was jailed for three years for a number of offences including using stolen prescription forms at Tesco in Warndon Villages to successfully obtain a prescription for diazepam, and attempting to do the same thing at Superdrug in Worcester High Street and Boots, also in Worcester High Street. The 33-year-old of no fixed address stole prescription forms from a city doctor's so he could fraudulently obtain the medication.

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A Boots Spokesman said: “At Boots UK, we take the fraudulent acquisition of medicines very seriously and are always looking to prevent cases of fraud. In this instance, our store team contacted the police when presented with a fraudulent prescription resulting in no items being obtained illicitly. Thankfully incidents of this nature are very rare and are becoming increasingly more rare due to the majority of prescriptions being transferred electronically from the GP to the pharmacy.”

Amo Sohal owner of Kitsons Pharmacy said: "Obviously Worcester has a big problem with drugs. In the wrong hands the medication could be very dangerous."

“From my understanding there is quite a lot of medication out there that has been obtained fraudulently.”

Mr Sohal recently reported an individual to the police, who targeted his pharmacy, using a fraudulent prescription to obtain medicine. However, the charge for this was dropped due to insufficient evidence, which Mr Sohal said was disappointing. Sergeant Pete Frankish said: "Every offence reported to us is assessed for the potential threat, harm and risk to the public and property. Resources are then allocated appropriately based on demand.

"While we strive to always provide the best possible level of service to our communities, there are instances where there isn’t a realistic prospect of a criminal justice outcome and the time spent on the investigation would not be proportionate."