A doctor who stole morphine from the hospital where she worked to feed her drug habit has escaped jail.
Samianaz Siddiqui began pocketing the narcotic soon after she started work at York District Hospital in September last year. The 36-year-old took morphine left over from that given to patients and injected it at the end of her shift, a court heard. The plastic surgery specialist has now pleaded guilty to theft by an employee of morphine, cyclizine and needles but this week escaped a jail term with a suspended sentence. York Crown Court heard that four months after she started work at the hospital, Siddiqui’s thefts were uncovered by security staff, who saw her in a hospital theatre where she should not have been.
Suspicious staff searched the mother-of-one’s handbag and found several saline vials and five bloody syringes. The police were called and Siddiqui’s York home was also searched, where officers found a suitcase full of needles, bags of used needles, some empty ampules and cyclizine packets. Later examination of some of the items showed evidence of contact with morphine.
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Filed under: Named & Shamed, Doctor stealing, morphine
