Mounjaro thief stole 40 boxes of weight-loss drug from Harrogate pharmacy

A man who stole 40 boxes of the weight-loss drug Mounjaro from the pharmacy he worked at has avoided jail.

Kurt Day also stole 60 boxes of the opioid painkiller dihydrocodeine from the Well Pharmacy in Harrogate, with the value of the stock taken totalling £4,285, Harrogate Magistrates’ Court heard.

Day, 38, of Guildford Walk in Sheffield, was given a 32-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, at the same court earlier, having pleaded guilty to theft on 24 July.

Defending, Sean Wilson said his client had taken the items “purely for personal use with no profit motivation”.

Mr Wilson added: “The offences were motivated purely by the fact that he had a dihydrocodeine addiction because of his back and knee pain, and the fact that Mounjaro being a specialist weight-loss drug, he took it to lose weight.”

Mounjaro is a weekly, self-administered injection which works by making those who take it feel full so they eat less.

According to the NHS, dihydrocodeine is a prescription-only drug used to treat moderate to severe pain.

The court heard Day, who had no previous convictions, was caught on CCTV taking the items on 1 August 2024.

Mr Wilson said his client had been of good character until the offence, which saw him lose his job.

“He’s someone who has suffered from bullying from an early age… That has led, to a degree, [to this].”

Day, who was now working as a receptionist at a GP practice, was “remorseful”, Mr Wilson added.

He was also undergoing treatment for an addiction to codeine, as well as for anxiety and depression.

According to Mr Wilson, the probation service said Day would be “vulnerable” if he was sent to prison.

“He is someone who could be rehabilitated,” he added.

Sentencing, the magistrate who chaired the hearing, Philip Morris, told the defendant that working in a pharmacy “is a position of considerable responsibility”.

“What you did was a breach of a high level of trust,” he added.

Mr Morris said the lay bench agreed there was a “prospect of rehabilitation” and had decided to suspend Day’s prison sentence.

He was ordered to repay the £4,285 in full and complete 25 rehabilitation activity days. Day was also given a three-month curfew between 20:00 and 07:00.