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A retired pharmacist who was convicted last year of child sex offences has been removed from the register by the General Pharmaceutical Council.

Nicholas Grant Ford, who first joined the register in July 1981, was convicted at Cannock Magistrates’ Court on December 13, 2024, of three counts of making an indecent photograph/pseudo-photograph of a child and one of possessing a prohibited image of a child.

The regulator’s fitness-to-practise committee said his “convictions were for offences that were so serious, his behaviour is fundamentally incompatible with remaining on the register”.

His criminal convictions related to offences that took place between June 2013 and March 2022.

Police seized computers and mobile phones 

Police officers seized computers and mobile phones under a search warrant from Ford’s home on March 8, 2023, after acting on intelligence that child abuse material was being accessed from his address.

The devices were found to contain child sexual abuse material, including 2,201 category A images, 3,548 category B images, 21,000 category C images and 376 accessible prohibitive images of children.

The committee heard the “aggravating features” were “plentiful and include the ages of children ranging from 4 to 14 years old.”

It also heard the “sheer volume of images possessed was indicative of a large number of victims” and there were videos “that include children”, while encrypted software was used in an attempt “to remain undetected”.

On November 27, 2024, Ford was charged with the four counts and convicted on all of them on December 13 that year.

On count one, he was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years, a rehabilitation activity requirement (maximum 25 days), an order for deprivation, notice of requirement to register with police for 10 years and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order until May 1, 2035.

He received six months’ imprisonment suspended for two years for each of the other three counts and ordered to pay a victim surcharge. Ford did not attend the fitness-to-practise hearing nor was he represented and the committee said it was “satisfied” he “had voluntarily absented himself”.

In deciding the sanction, the committee took into account Ford’s “otherwise unblemished record”, his “candour with the Council regarding the criminal proceedings” and his admission of the charges he faced at the Magistrates Court.

Offences 'repeated over a period of time exceeding eight years'

However, the committee noted his offending was “repeated over a period of time exceeding eight years” and the “volume of images possessed indicates a large number of victims” whose ages ranged from four to 14 years.

“The registrant’s conduct was serious enough to attract a custodial sentence,” the committee said. It found he breached the standard requiring pharmacy professionals behave in a professional manner and he also “breached a fundamental tenet of the profession, namely that it is incumbent on members of the profession to behave lawfully”.

“By failing to do so, and given the nature of his offending behaviour, his behaviour brings the profession into disrepute,” the committee said.

“The registrant was in possession of a significant number of indecent images of child sexual abuse. As a result, it concluded that his integrity can no longer be relied upon.”

Concluding Ford’s fitness-to-practise was “impaired on public interest grounds by reason of his conviction”, the committee said he should be removed from the register.