Suspicions of nefarious conduct were first raised when the pharmacy’s owners opened the store on a Monday in September 2019. They noticed some study material on a bench that hadn’t been there when the store was closed around 36 hours earlier.
An inspection of the alarm system found it had been turned off and on earlier that morning, while a further look at the security cameras revealed they too had been switched off for around 30 minutes at 7.30am that morning.
Just before the camera was switched off, it captured Collett standing by the control unit.
Four days after the early-morning camera and alarm switch-off, at around 1pm Collett used a syringe to draw methadone from a small bottle, transferring the contents to a glass bottle he later slipped into his trousers pocket.
Six days after that theft, Collett entered the store after hours and put a small methadone bottle in his jacket pocket and left.
He further admitted visiting the pharmacy twice outside of business hours during the same period, although there was no allegation he took anything.
Methadone is a synthetic opioid used to treat chronic pain or as a maintenance drug to assist those with addictions to other opioids.
Police launched an investigation and were told by Collett that he stole the drugs as he was having difficulty sleeping. Police charged him with stealing a class B drug and he was convicted in February 2020.
He was sentenced to 100 hours of community work and ordered to pay the owners of the pharmacy $3380 in emotional harm reparation.
The Medical Council’s professional conduct committee (PCC) later laid a professional misconduct charge, which went before the tribunal in December 2021.
Not only did the charge stem from inappropriate after-hours visits and stealing methadone, but the PCC alleged Collett also failed in his management of the drug.
He left bottles of the drug on a bench four times in a 16-day period when it should have been in a locked cabinet, despite having earlier been warned about following the correct procedure.
The PCC submitted it appeared Collett attempted to hide his theft by diluting the remaining methadone bottles that he had stolen from - an assumption the tribunal said was a reasonable conclusion to reach.
“Some difficulty has arisen when we have not been able to determine how much actual methadone has been dispensed to a patient and dispensing more could place them in serious danger. We have not been able to dispense to them and they’ve had to go... for testing,” the pharmacy’s owner said in a victim impact statement.
“Mr Collett’s disregard for the potential adverse consequences for patients requiring opiate substitution treatment is alarming. His conduct was deliberate and unethical,” tribunal chair Theo Baker wrote in her decision.
At retirement age, Collett told the tribunal he had no intention of practising again and accepted his registration should be cancelled.
The tribunal ordered the cancellation of his registration and payment of costs totalling $9683.
Ethan Griffiths covers crime and justice stories nationwide for Open Justice. He joined NZME in 2020, previously working as a regional reporter in Whanganui and South Taranaki.
