Pharmacist tricked patient out of £5,000, court told (From Sutton Guardian)

Sutton pharmacist Jaspal Cheema accused of inventing the prices of medicines

1:00pm Tuesday 29th January 2013 in News By Mike Pyle

A pharmacist deliberately overcharged a patient who trusted him by more than £5,000 over four years, a court heard.

Jaspal Cheema was working at Imperial Pharmacy in Epsom Road, Sutton, when he allegedly invented the prices of medicines supplied to a long term customer and charged the 65-year-old up to £350 for medicine which should have cost around £17 under the premise the Government had put up the prices.

Cheema, of Cheyham Road, is on trial at Croydon Crown Court and denies fraud.

The court was told Cheema, had built a relationship of trust with the woman over the course of around 20 years but started inventing the prices of her irritable bowel syndrome and migraine medication in 2007.

The patient would phone Cheema when she needed medication and he would send a delivery driver around the pick up sums of money varying from £16 to £350 and give her the medicine, the court heard on Monday.

A friend of the patient's raised concerns about the large sums of money she was spending on her medication. The court heard the friend confronted Cheema about it prompting him to post a cheque for £3,000 through the patient's door.

When he was arrested in October 2011 he allegedly told police he gave her a cheque, that it was the delivery driver who overcharged her and, during his interview, said the customer was generous and that some customers pay extra, the court heard.

Prosecutor Shekinah Anson said: "Mr Cheema would charge her whatever he wanted, she would write the cheque, she didn't realise she was being overcharged, she thought the tablets were expensive because the Government put the prices up.

"Over four years he abused his position of trust and acted unprofessionally."

The trial continues.