Emirati druggie steals prescription books from hospitals

Abu Dhabi - Prosecutors charged the Emirati with theft, forging official documents, consuming and possessing drugs.

A drug addict went on trial, accused of stealing stamps and prescription books from six hospitals in Abu Dhabi and using them to forge medical documents so that he could get prescription-only drugs from pharmacies. 
The Abu Dhabi criminal court heard that authorities found out about the thefts and forgeries a few months ago, when the Emirati man was admitted to a hospital in the Capital in a critical condition after suffering from drug overdose. 
Court documents stated that doctors informed the police about the patient after medical tests revealed that he had consumed a lot of drugs. And when the police searched the man's home, they found six hospital stamps, prescription books belonging to some major hospitals in Abu Dhabi and heroin and other psychotropic drugs. Prosecutors charged him with theft, forgery of official documents and consuming and possessing drugs. 
Police investigations suggested that the man was using the forged prescription documents to get controlled medicines from pharmacies. A prosecutor told the court that the accused was forging the prescription notes, claiming to pharmacists that he got them from his doctor. 
"He wrote the prescriptions himself, stamped them and forged doctors' signatures," the court was told. 
At the court, the accused admitted to being an addict and forging the prescription documents to get psychotropic medicines for personal use. But he denied stealing the stamps and prescription books from hospitals. 
His lawyer Hadiyat Hamad argued that there was no evidence to prove that her client went to any of the said hospitals and stole anything from there. 
"There is no way my client could have gone to all these hospitals and stole stamps and prescription books from there without being noticed by anyone or being caught on CCTV cameras inside there," she said. "Besides, no theft case had been filed to police by any of the hospitals." 
The trial has been adjourned to February 16. 
ismail@khaleejtimes.com

• Abu Dhabi