Pharmacists should be able to warn colleagues about stealing locums they have employ-ed, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society heard on Tuesday.

Gary Flather, chairman of its Statutory Committee, made the observation while striking off a 46-year-old woman convicted of ten offences.

Janet Lentzos, of Charlton Grove, Silsden, who had previously been reprimanded by the Society for similar matters, was given 12 months in prison suspended for two years.

Mr Flather said she kept drugs 'rather like a squirrel' but showed a compulsion to steal things for which she had no immediate requirement.

"It seems she took what was on hand on an opportunist basis," he said. "This is a shameful case. She had been given a chance in 1994 and these are merely a repetition. She's a kleptomaniac or very much like one.

"We should keep her out of a pharmacy as soon as possible - there should be some way employers can warn other pharmacists about locums of her characteristics."

Lentzos stole drugs and other items from three pharmacies where she worked as a locum and then took other items while on bail at another.

She took the drugs, she claimed, as she previously had an addiction and was hoarding them 'for security in case her addiction returned'.

Lentzos was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court after admitting the offences on April 24, 1998, including four counts of theft, three of possessing class A drugs, two of a class B drug and one class C.

She had been arrested on July 14, 1997, after £20 had gone missing and a colleague reported the matter to security.

Geoff Hudson, solicitor to the Society, said £20 in £1 coins, 100 Ritalin tablets, 501 Nitrazepan, 493 Dihydrocod-eins and a bottle of aftershave with a total value of £55.56, was taken from Moss Chemists, at West Bolling, Bradford.

After security discovered the coins in her possession, her home was searched by police and other items were discovered. She admitted a previous addiction and said she was hoarding them in case it returned.

Further inquiries revealed she stole Ritalin tablets from J Robertson and Sons, of Brad-ford, and a presentation collection of gold coins worth £1,050 from Goodall and Butler Pharmacy, also in Bradford.

While on bail for these matters, she stole three bubble strips of an oral contraceptive pill worth £2.10 and a strip of other tablets worth £1.86 from Hills Pharmacy, of Yeadon.

Mr Hudson said she had been reprimanded by the committee in July 1994 after being placed on probation for theft in 1991.

Between January and April 1991 at Curtis the Chemist, in Baker Street, London, she stole £2,490-worth of cosmetics and perfume.

She stole £900-worth of Minolta Camera equipment in July 1994 from Brockley Park Chemist in Brockley.

At the time she was living at a flat in Wanstead, East London, and police found an array of stolen items there.

Lentzos, who did not attend the hearing, has three months to appeal and her striking off will take effect at that time if she does not appeal against the verdict.

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