Conman jailed over stolen prescriptions

A court heard Benjamin Beever, aka Wilby, duped staff by using different aliases when handing in the forged prescriptions at a number of different pharmacies across West Yorkshire.

Beever used blank prescriptions which had been stolen from Hemsworth medical centre.

In a separate spate of offending Beever tricked his hairdresser by using her name and address to order goods online before arranging for them to be delivered to her home.

Beever would then send text messages to the victim and pretend to engage her in conversations but was really trying to establish if she was at home.

Beever would then go to her home and try to intercept the goods as they were being delivered to the house.

The woman became suspicious and contacted police when electrical items and other products kept arriving at her home which she had no knowledge of ordering.

Beever, of Chapel Garth, Ackworth, pleaded guilty to six offences of copying a false instrument with intent, three of fraud, theft, possessing a false instrument and making a false instrument.

He has previous convictions for deception offences, including stealing £26,000 from customers at a company where he had worked.

Beever was subject to a community order at the time of the offending.

Christopher Dunn, mitigating, said Beever suffered from a number of medical conditions for which he needed medication.

As a result he had developed an addiction to codeine and his latest convictions were committed to obtain the drug.

He added: “The defendant realistically accepts that he is facing custody.”

Beever was jailed for 18 months.