Man who forged prescription spared jail

Sunday 09 July 2023

A man who forged a prescription in order to obtain controlled drugs has been given a six-month suspended sentence.

Laurie Ian Murphy (32) visited Boot’s pharmacy in King Street on 22 February and used the forged document to try to obtain dihydrocodeine, a class B drug, and the class C drugs pregablin and diazepam.

The pharmacist who received the prescription suspected it was a forgery and took a photo of it.

Advocate Lauren Taylor, prosecuting, said: "They contacted the doctor whose name was at the bottom of it, and he confirmed it was a forged."

Murphy was arrested the same evening.

The court heard that he had previous convictions for drugs offences but none of this kind.

Murphy pleaded guilty to using forged documents, and Advocate James Bell, defending, said the crime was "an unsophisticated attempt to obtain medication that was doomed to fail".

He said Murphy had been in hospital with suspected pancreatitis, and wanted drugs for pain relief and explained: "It is in the context of coming out of hospital and changes to his medication that he tried to get more medication."

Magistrate Bridget Shaw told Murphy: "This was a serious offence. I accept that it was an amateurish attempt which was unlikely to succeed, but you were trying to get class B and class C drugs. The control of these drugs is a very important matter."

She said she believed Murphy would not comply with a probation order or community service order and prison was a possible alternative, but decided to suspend a six-month prison sentence for a year.