The multiple is working in partnership with the UK's other retailers and the Home Office to tackle 'retail crime' at 10 Downing Street on 23 October.
The initiative is known as "Operation Pegasus", chaired by Crime and Policing Minister Chris Philp MP and led by Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne.
Boots with other retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury's, John Lewis, and Waitrose plans to fund a "team of specialist police officers and intelligence analysts".7
Bourne, the national lead for business and retail crime claimed that the action plan will be a "game-changer" for policing as it is "the first national partnership
of its kind".
She told The Times: "It'll be a game-changer for policing because for the first time ever, policing will get a complete picture across the country of where these
gangs are hitting different areas and they'll have that data and intelligence to be able to put that out to local police forces to go after those gangs."
Nottinghamshire Police have released a CCTV image of a man over the theft of £1,400 worth of cosmetic products from a Boots store on Sunday (18 June).
Police have made appeal they would like to speak to the man in the CCTV image to in connection with the theft from a Boots store in St Peter's Retail Park,
Mansfield.
On Sunday (18 June) boxes of eye serum were stolen from the store at around 10.35am. Officers would like to trace the man pictured as they continue with their
inquiries into the theft.
Police Constable Beth Richards, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "Shoplifting is not a victimless crime. Offences of this sort can have a hugely detrimental
impact on retailers and wider communities.
"We have carried out initial inquiries but are now asking the public to assist us in identifying who this person might be - as he could help aid our investigation.
Merseyside Police have appealed for information from the public following the theft of "a large quantity" of medication from a pharmacy in West Derby this week.
As per the police report, the burglary occurred in the early hours of Monday, 12 February, at the pharmacy situated on Deysbrook Lane. Authorities were informed
at around 9:15 am.
Based on the CCTV footage they have recovered, the Merseyside Police revealed that a man entered the pharmacy at around 1.20 am on 12 February and stole a large
quantity of medication, including diazepam, codeine, co-codamol, pregabalin, zopiclone.
These are prescription-only drugs that could cause "serious harm" if a significant amount is taken, the report said.
The suspect, described as a white man of slim build, was wearing a grey coloured tracksuit and glasses, according to the police.
The Hyderabad Police are actively searching for UK-based pharmacist M. Ajith Kumar, who is suspected of involvement in a plot to poison his estranged wife's
family in Hyderabad by contaminating their spices with arsenic. While the accused allegedly succeeded in fatally poisoning his mother-in-law through a slow method,
timely arsenic testing saved the lives of others.
In late June, a newlywed woman in her 30s visited a Guntur-based doctor, complaining of intense burning, tingling, and numbness in her hands and feet. The
neurologist's keen observation foiled the alleged sinister plot of Ajith Kumar, suspected of using his chemical expertise to harm his wife and her family.
Presently, the police are actively searching for M. Ajith Kumar, who is currently in London, in connection with the murder plot. Furthermore, the Hyderabad police
have apprehended six individuals from the city who were complicit in his nefarious scheme.
The investigation gathered key information from arrested suspects, including D. Vinod Kumar, a UK-based IT professional from Andhra Pradesh. Vinod Kumar's involvement
in UK software projects provided by Ajith Kumar generated a substantial monthly income, leading him to assist Ajith in his plot against his estranged wife's family.
In consideration of the Police Martyr Memorial Run on Sunday, police has enforced the following traffic restrictions around Hussain Sagar between 0600 hours to 1000 hours
A drug dealer who was operating as an "unlicensed chemist" and selling prescription drugs online has been jailed for six years, according to Essex Police.
The convict, identified as 49-year-old Christopher Depp, aka David Jones, was supplying a range of drugs from his home to "vulnerable people" using the postal
service, local police revealed on Friday (February 16).
Police conducted a search operation at his address in Wood Street, Chelmsford, in July last year and found more than 50,000 pills and tablets of varying types,
stashed in toolboxes and spaces around the property.
To process the large-scale sale and shipping of controlled drugs across the UK, Depp had set up a room in his property as an office space.
He promoted the sale of medications through various social media platforms and messaging applications, and accepted payment from his large customer base
using "fraudulently obtained" bank accounts.
A pharmacy assistant has been jailed for three years and seven months for stealing £330,000 worth of diabetes-testing kits from his workplace.
Abdul Nargoliya stole the products while working as a pharmacy assistant at a Lloydspharmacy counter inside a Sainsbury's supermarket in Fosse Park, Leicester
where we was employed since 2012.
The 30-year-old from Woodboy Street in Leicester was sentenced on Friday (May 26) after pleading guilty at Leicester Crown Court "to theft by an employee and
concealing, transferring, converting criminal property".
According to police an internal investigation launched at the pharmacy branch in July 2018 revealed that more than 22,000 test kits had been ordered since January
2017.
Leicester Police said they identified Nargoliya as a suspect due to the time of the orders being placed matching up to his shift patterns. They arrested him in July
2018.
Orders for the products were placed by telephone and CCTV footage showed Nargoliya handling them.
It was noticed that during his shifts, the defendant would move the deliveries into a private consultation room and later leave with full carrier bags.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on Thursday (30th November) announced the launch of a new suicide surveillance system, bolstering its
efforts to tackle emerging methods of suicide and clamp down on those seeking to sell dangerous products to vulnerable people.
For now, the DHSC will work with the National Police Chiefs' Council to gather near to real-time data from across the country on deaths by suspected suicide
by gender, age group and method.
The data will be obtained from individual police forces in England and the government will get it within three months of a suspected suicide, the DHSC said in
its release.
Previously, the only suicide data available at a national level was provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), but it could take up to 2 years for
the official ONS data to come through.
A snap survey conducted by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) revealed that over half of community pharmacy teams have felt unsafe in the past week
due to ongoing riots across the country.
The survey, which included responses from approximately 350 community pharmacies, also found that one in three pharmacies had considered closing because of
safety concerns, while 13 per cent of pharmacy teams reported experiencing racist comments during this period.
According to the NPA, over 40 per cent of pharmacists are of South Asian, Black, or other ethnic minority backgrounds, with the majority of independent community
pharmacy owners believed to be of South Asian heritage.
The association reports that businesses had been vandalised during the riots, leading some pharmacies to reduce their opening hours or close entirely, following
advice from the police and local authorities.
Despite a recent decline in disorder over the last few days, police have been advised to remain on high alert over the weekend.
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A couple in Maidenhead, Berkshire has been handed suspended sentence for illegal possession and supply of £1.6m of unlicensed medicines.
Following investigations initiated by the MHRA, Karina Filimonova and Andrejs Stolarovs were caught with the unlicensed medicines which included prescription-only
medications. Southwark Crown Court sentenced each "to eight months imprisonment suspended for 18 months and 150 hours unpaid work" for possessing and intending to
supply medicinal products contrary to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.
"This was a sophisticated operation illegally bringing unlicensed medicines into the UK from Singapore and India, and then distributing them across the country and
abroad," said Andy Morling, MHRA Deputy Director of Criminal Enforcement. "Criminals trading in medicines illegally like this are not only breaking the law, but
they also have no regard for your safety. These are powerful medicines that can lead to serious adverse health consequences if taken without appropriate medical
supervision."
In 2020, the Royal Mail Group (RMG) informed the MHRA about parcels containing unlicensed medicines discovered during their investigation into suspicious parcel
activity. Following this, the MHRA's Criminal Enforcement Unit, in cooperation with local police, launched an investigation and apprehended the couple at their
residence in Kidwells Close, Maidenhead.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's (MHRA) Criminal Enforcement Unit (CEU) has seized a quantity of suspected unlicensed medical
products including unlicensed versions of Botox, numbing agents and dermal fillers in Bolton, Greater Manchester.
Officers from the MHRA and Greater Manchester Police conducted a raid across nine addresses in Bolton, Westhoughton and Leigh in the early hours of Thursday
13 July 2023, where two women and a man were arrested.
Andy Morling, MHRA Deputy Director of Criminal Enforcement said: "Medicines like these are powerful and dangerous in the wrong hands, potentially leading to
serious adverse health consequences. The criminals trading in these products are not only breaking the law, they also have no regard for your safety.
It is illegal to advertise, sell or supply medicines such as these without the appropriate authorisation. If you see these products, or any other powerful
medicines, being sold on social media or elsewhere online, think. It's unlikely to be legitimate. You can help the MHRA take action by reporting concerns
to us through our Yellow Card scheme.
A community pharmacist who supplied a drug addict with "under the counter drugs" has been jailed for 18 months.
Dushyant Patel, 67, a London pharmacist with more than 40 years' experience, had supplied class C drugs to a drug user in Norwich for months in 2020.
Police identified Patel as a suspect four months after the death of drug user, Alisha Siddiqi, whose body was found at a property in Colossus Way, Costessey, in
August 2020.
An initial post-mortem examination was inconclusive, but toxicology results later showed she died from an overdose of prescription medication.
An analysis of her phone revealed that she had frequent communication with Patel between January and August 2020.
Class C drugs sold without prescription
There was also communication regarding transactions relating to the sale of prescription drugs including class C drugs, without a prescription, namely Zolpidem and
Zopiclone.
Patel was identified as a suspect and later charged with drugs offences.
He was jailed at Norwich Crown Court in December after a trial in August when he was found guilty of two counts of being concerned in supplying a controlled drug
between March and August 2020.
The Criminal Enforcement Unit (CEU) of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) seized a large quantity of suspected illegally
traded medicines, including powerful prescription-only medicines, during raids conducted at two residential and two business premises across North Manchester.
Officers from the MHRA and Greater Manchester Police carried out searches across two residential addresses in Oldham and Cheetham in the early hours of
Wednesday (29 November), and arrested a man in his 20s on "suspicion of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs, breaches of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012
and money laundering."
They also seized thousands of illegal medicines from two business addresses in Bury and Miles Platting, including powerful opioid painkillers and antidepressants,
as well as unlicensed versions of erectile dysfunction drugs.
Scottish community pharmacies will now hold two Naloxone kits, available in either nasal spray or injectable form, essential for reversing opioid overdoses.
The Emergency Access Naloxone Scheme, which is backed by £300,000 of Scottish Government funding, began on Monday (30 October).
Drugs and Alcohol Policy Minister Elena Whitham said, "Through our National Mission to reduce drug deaths and harms, we have invested more than £3 million in
widening access to Naloxone, including through our emergency services."
Witham said this new nationwide service is a welcome addition to existing services. "Police Scotland recently completed a force-wide rollout to 12,500 officers
who have used the kits more than 300 times. According to the most recent statistics, 70 per cent of those who are at risk of opioid overdose are being provided
with a lifesaving kit," she added.
"It provides a substantial increase in life-saving emergency access and I'm grateful to all those in community pharmacies who are supporting our £250 million
National Mission to reduce drug deaths," Whitham said.
The Manchester Crown Court on Friday (9 December) sentenced three men, Cleave Lewis (35) and brothers, Denis Sutherland (58) and David Sutherland (59), to a
total of three years in jail after they pleaded guilty to the illegal sale and supply online of prescription-only medicines and controlled Class B and Class C
drugs, worth more than £1.5m.
They were found in possession of nearly 1.3m tablets of prescription-only drugs, including powerful sleeping pills, painkillers and anti-anxiety meds, when officers
from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Greater Manchester Police searched their residential homes and business premises in October
2017.
Following investigations by the agency, they also pleaded guilty to illegally making these medicines available online on three different websites for the public to
purchase without prescriptions.
The officials also recovered controlled medicines, over half a million (525,737) erectile dysfunction, slimming and herbal tablets, with an estimated value of
approximately £500k, from them.
The UK government has announced plans to update legislation to enable more services and individuals to provide take-home supplies of naloxone - a life-saving
opioid overdose antidote - over the next few weeks.
Naloxone can immediately reverse the effects of an opioid overdose by reversing breathing difficulties. The medicine can be administered by anyone in an emergency.
However, current legislation allows only drug and alcohol treatment services to supply it without a prescription to individuals for future use.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed on Tuesday (14 May) that more professionals, including nurses, paramedics, police officers, probation
officers and pharmacy professionals, will be able to supply the medicine without a prescription to save lives.
Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins warned that opioid addiction can ruin lives and it accounts for the largest proportion of drug-related deaths
across the UK.