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A pharmacy technician who submitted CPPE course assessments that contained work he had copied from a colleague has been suspended for three months by the General Pharmaceutical Council’s fitness to practise committee.

Mohammed Abid admitted to having submitted assessment documents for the Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP) that contained work completed by a colleague of his, but with his name written at the top of the form in place of hers.

Mr Abid, who started on the PCPEP in late 2022 and had previously been progressing well before falling behind due to illness by the time his final assessments were due in 2024, submitted 10 pieces of work that included material copied from his colleague. These included a case study, a reflective essay, a quality improvement project slideshow and a record of a peer discussion.

On July 10, 2024, after receiving extensions on his course deadlines, he submitted a statement of assessment and progression declaring that all entries in his e-portfolio “are an honest and accurate record of the impact of my role in primary care” despite knowing this was not correct, the fitness to practise committee found.

When his course supervisor raised allegations of plagiarism with Mr Abid, he said that he and his colleague had carried out the relevant work together and that he had been “lazy” with regard to submitting his own documentation.

Telling the FtP committee he was in a state of panic over the deadline, he admitted to submitting the plagiarised work and that his conduct had shown a lack of integrity but denied an allegation of dishonesty.

However, the committee found that in submitting work carried out by a colleague that was supposed to give an account of his own competence and reflections, Mr Abid had behaved dishonestly.

Since the time of the allegations, Mr Abid has “gone back to basics” and returned to work as a dispenser in community pharmacy, working his way up to become pharmacy manager. He told the FtP committee he has completed an online plagiarism awareness course and now feels able to ask colleagues for help when he is unsure about something.

The committee acknowledged his efforts to remediate his misconduct but found he did “not provide evidence that similar misconduct would not happen again in the future,” citing a lack of proof that “any underlying attitudinal issues have been addressed”.

It imposed a three-month suspension order and advised him to present a reflective piece at his upcoming review hearing in which he describes the impact of his actions on his colleague, how patients might have been affected and how his conduct could undermine the public’s confidence in the profession.

Related: ‘Fully remediated’: Locum warned over CPPE course plagiarism

Pharmacist struck off after falsifying CPPE documentation