A PHARMACIST said to have swindled £17,000 in a scam involving oxygen cylinders, for which he was jailed for 21 months, was struck off yesterday

Zia Ul Haq, of North Road, Spennymoor, who had also been involved in a prescription fraud with a doctor, was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court in June.

Finding him guilty of misconduct because of the convictions, the statutory committee of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in London, ordered his striking off.

Chairman of the committee, Lord Fraser of the Carmyllie QC, said: "While we have listened carefully, the standards of the profession are such that there is no alternative but to make a direction that his name be removed."

Ul Haq admitted conspiracy to defraud Durham Health Authority between January 1991 and November 1997, for which he received six months in prison, and admitted false accounting between January 1993 and June 1997, for which he was given s 21-month sentence to run concurrent.

Geoffrey Hudson, for the society, said Ul Haq worked for M&Ms chemists at Church Street, Shildon, since 1987.

Harry Steinberg for Ul Haq, told the hearing his client accepted these very serious offences "in a position of trust which he breached".

His client "in no way at all does he seek to justify what he did - the two offences relate to a period of time when he was relatively young. It was his first job, commercially"

He made no personal profit from the first offence - the doctor was in financial trouble and he set up an account to pay off his debt. Al Haq came under the influence of the doctor, a "charismatic, aggressive figure".

Ul Haq did not accept the £17,000 figure, estimating it at £2,700, said Mr Steinberg.

"He's grown up since and become worldly wise - he's mended his ways," he added