Fine for drug theft

Press, 21 October 1983, Page 13

Fine for drug theft

A young woman who took five ampoules of pethidine from a doctor’s bag, and later injected herself with one ampoule of the drug, was fined in the District Court at Christchurch yesterday. Victoria Anne Miles, aged 25, was convicted and fined $250 on a charge of theft of the pethidine, a class B controlled drug, and $lOO for using the drug. Judge Pain ordered immediate payment, in default two months’ imprisonment. Miles had admitted the charges. Detective Sergeant B. M. Quested said the defendant had gone to a doctor’s sur-

gery with a friend who was obtaining treatment for a stomach complaint. While the doctor was briefly out of the room, the defendant had taken the drug from his bag. Later, at their flat, she had injected two ampoules of the drug into her friend and one ampoule into herself, using a syringe left at the flat by a diabetic. When questioned by the police, the defendant said she had done it to help her friend.

The Judge indicated that a probation report should be obtained but counsel, Mr D. C. Fitzgibbon, said the defendant, who was bom in Australia, intended to return

there after the charges had been dealt with.

Mr Fitzgibbon said the defendant had no previous convictions, and no background of drugs or drug abuse.

The Judge said thefts of drugs from doctors was a matter of increasing concern in the community. He took into account her lack of previous convictions and the circumstances mentioned by defence counsel. He said the case called for further information, and counselling, but because of the defendant’s planned return to Australia, imposed supervision would be inappropriate.