How Staff Steal In Community Pharmacy

Stealing is a big problem in community pharmacy. Burglars come at night to steal accessories and control drugs. Shoplifters target money, phones and expensive supplements. Staff can steal anything within their reach.

Stealing by staff

According to a survey, burglars and shoplifters account for about 55 percent of theft in a community pharmacy. You may be surprised to find the other 45 percent are from the pharmacy staff. That calls for great concern.

Read Also: How To Secure A Community Pharmacy Shop

But with my experience in community pharmacy, the statistic may be flawed. This is because most theft carried out by shoplifters may be blamed on the staff. Maybe due to carelessness or when the thief was not found and the theft happens during the shift of a staff.

Most staff that attempt to steal always succeed. This is because they know the security protocol of the pharmacy. Hence, they know how to bypass it and avoid getting caught.

How Staffs Steal Cash

Increase Selling Price

The major target of most staff is on how to steal cash. In a community pharmacy with maximum security and a computer system, stealing cash is reduced to the nearest minimum. However, those with a little lapse can expect some periodic theft from staff. The method they adopt is to increase the selling price. They can do this by quickly removing the price tag and selling the product at a high price. They take the extra profit and drop the actual money with the company. They may print the receipt but never hand it over to the customer. However, this cannot happen if there is a security personnel at the gate that demands a receipt from each customer that buys something. What if they connive with the security personnel?

The company does not lose money. But may lose that customer if they find out that they can actually get the product at a cheaper rate elsewhere.

Open A Second Shop

This is one of the most common methods staff steal from community pharmacies. They will buy their own fast moving drugs and be selling wherever a customer wants that product. Worst thing is the company have the product. They open a shop within a shop. They have a special place they hide these products from management.

Read Also: How Thief Steal In A Community Pharmacy

The company does not lose money. But it has lost the sales for those products if they have it on their shelf. Most staff who engage in such acts work hard to make sure the company does not stock some of those drugs.

Stealing Direct Money

Some will sell, record and take money. Some will sell, not record and keep the money. For community pharmacies with adequate security, they can bypass the system by using the login of another staff to perpetuate the evil. Some go as far as switching off the security cameras.

Duplicate POS Receipt

This is the latest of all the methods I have seen. It was rather amazing. A customer buys drugs and makes payment using a point of sales (POS) machine. The staff gives the customer the drugs, POS receipt as well as the company receipt. The transaction is recorded as a POS system. As the customer leaves, the staff will wait for some minutes and reprint the last POS receipt. The time will definitely change. The staff will neatly tear out the part that said 'duplicate' because it is always at the bottom. The staff now will sell drugs worth the amount on the POS receipt and demand for cash from the second customer. The staff will then keep the cash and drop the duplicated POS receipt. The second sale is recorded as a POS system.

It will take clever eyes to detect this. It can go on for months if you are not very careful.

How Staff steal Drugs

Taking Drugs Without Authorisation

Most community pharmacies have treatment plan in place for their staff. The most common one is that any staff can take the cheapest brand for treating common diseases like malaria and typhoid. Some staff target to steal those expensive supplements. They know the market values. Some can also steal drugs for their family use which is in most cases against the policy of their company.

Read Also: How To Prevent Expired Drugs On The Shelves By Pharmacist

Stealing drugs is very simple as almost all the staff have access to drugs except control drugs under the power of the pharmacist. They just get there, pretend to take a product for a customer and add their own. They may wrap it in their body as they dispense drugs to customers.

Targeting About To Expire Drug

A staff that knows about to expire drugs are given to staff will deliberately prevent the sales of a product he or she wants. The methods works well in big community pharmacy. When the date is close, they will notify management. Left with no choice and not wanting a drug to waste, management give it out to staffs.

How Staff Steal Accessories

Most community pharmacies are equipped with smartphones and computers. Stealing smartphones and laptops is not really common except the staff have made up their mind never to return. It is just to put in a bag or bag and disappear.

How Staff Steal Control Drugs

We all know the black market value of these drugs is quite high compared to the retail price. So they always target when the pharmacist is out of seat and try to get access to the poison cupboard. They steal and use it for themselves or sell it at black market.