Pharmacist jailed 11 years for stealing $1M in fentanyl
WOODSTOCK A disgraced pharmacist who used the names of the dead and dying to fill bogus fentanyl prescriptions received a precedent-setting sentence Tuesday of 11 years behind bars.
Yogesh Patel, a 47-year-old Kitchener resident who had no criminal record, had pleaded guilty to stealing opioid drugs — including 3,000 fentanyl patches and 1,500 hydromorphone tablets with a street value of almost $1 million — from a Rexall pharmacy in Woodstock.
In court in April, Patel admitted that between 2014 and 2016, he forged documents, defrauded and stole prescription narcotics from Rexall and the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan, and possessed hydromorphone, morphine and the potentially deadly painkiller fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking.
Crown prosecutor Nancy Komsa, who with federal prosecutor Mike Smith had requested a 15year sentence, said her office was “very happy” with the “well-reasoned sentence.”
“The Ontario Court of Appeal has said severe sentences for fentanyl trafficking, fraud and forging prescription are warranted,” she said. “This case cries out for a severe penitentiary sentence.”
Patel’s defence attorney Jim Dean, whose request for two years and three years probation was denied, said he was disappointed but “not surprised” with the harsh sentence given “the severe nature of crime, nature of the substance and recent decisions in court.”
“It is a precedent-setting case that will be used a lot more moving forward,” he said.
He also added his client was “very remorseful” not only for his actions in the community but also for the impact it has had on his young family.
Patel used people’s real names,
fictitious names and names of the dead and dying from local obituaries or a hospice to forge documents for about 150 prescriptions.
In 2011, Patel was hired by Rexall in the Sobey’s Plaza in Woodstock, where he became the store’s manager. Patel was the narcotics signer — the only person who could authorize narcotics at the pharmacy.
During sentencing, Justice M. E. Graham described the former pharmacist as “the gatekeeper” to the drugs although he did not personally sell them.
“The breach of trust is egregious though,” he said. “Mr. Patel had
the highest duty to protect the public. Instead, he placed members of the public at great risk of harm.”
Graham also said Patel must have known he was putting lives at risk.
“His moral blameworthiness is exceptionally high,” he said.
While working at Rexall Patel became friendly with co-accused William Minton, who in August 2014 told Patel his doctor could no longer prescribe him fentanyl.
Between 2014 and 2016 Patel provided Minton with fentanyl in exchange for cash and products such as alcohol and perfume.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid drug that is 100 times more powerful than morphine and 20 times stronger than heroine.
Patel’s actions were only discovered while Woodstock police were conducting another drug-related investigation.
At his sentencing hearing in July, Patel’s defence lawyer said Patel had no explanation for his decision to give opioids to the Woodstock man, who’s also facing drug-related charges.
Dean said his client had a happy, privileged upbringing in his native India, a successful career in Canada and a young family. As well, Patel lived free of financial worries or addiction issues.