A DRUG addict who altered a doctor's prescription in a bid to acquire more tablets has appeared in court.

John Gurney, aged 28, tricked a pharmacist into giving him 30 extra tablets of the tranquillising drug diazepam after visiting his GP at Evesham's Riverside Surgery, Worcester magistrates heard yesterday.

Nigel Reader, prosecuting, said Gurney then sold the tablets in a supermarket car park.

He said Gurney told his GP he had lost the last prescription of tablets he had been given.

His doctor prescribed him 12 tablets to get him through the weekend.

"When he received the prescription, he altered the quantity from 12 to 42," said Mr Reader.

Concerns

He said Gurney sold the tablets for £10. Police went to his home after the pharmacist raised concerns about the prescription, and he admitted forging the document.

Gurney, of Rynal Place, Evesham, admitted forging the prescription and supplying Class C drugs.

Dale Sheehan, defending, said Gurney suffered brain damage when he was thrown from a railway bridge in Evesham in 1996.

"He has bad short term memory, double vision, epileptic fits and nightmares," he said.

Mr Sheehan said Gurney's heroin addiction may have resulted from the traumatic event.

"He can't work out why he sold the tablets. He's a vulnerable man," he added.

Magistrates made Gurney subject to an 18-month community rehabilitation order and ordered him to pay costs of £70.