A pharmacist, 39, in the Cocentaina area of Alicante province has been arrested for illegally obtaining prescription medicines and selling them off to elderly customers.
An 87-year-old friend of the pharmacist and five nursing home managers are also being probed over the scam which defrauded authorities of at least €39,000.
Investigations started last October when inspectors detected a big leap in medicines being ordered by a pharmacy which were paid for by Spain’s National Health system.
The Guardia Civil visited the shop and discovered 500 cloned SIP health cards featuring the names of people in local nursing homes.
A database was found with confidential patient information from care homes as well as boxes of illegally-obtained medication.
3.000 cartons of unapproved medication charged to the state were removed which were going to be sold off illegally to elderly people.
Officers stopped the pharmacist’s 87-year-old acquaintance from leaving the premises with a box of SIP cards ready for cloning on him, along, along with a file of patient details.
The Guardia said that none of the seven people, including the pharmacist, had criminals records.
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