A FORMER nurse who stole drugs from the ward where he worked in a bid to ease his migraines has been spared jail.Philip Gibson, 44, stole 11 ampoules of the painkiller pethidine from a drugs cabinet on the Haughley Ward at Ipswich Hospital in October 2002.

A FORMER nurse who stole drugs from the ward where he worked in a bid to ease his migraines has been spared jail.

Philip Gibson, 44, stole 11 ampoules of the painkiller pethidine from a drugs cabinet on the Haughley Ward at Ipswich Hospital in October 2002.

Gibson, of Abbotsbury Road, Bury St Edmunds, admitted the charge at a hearing in August and appeared at Ipswich Crown Court for sentencing yesterday .

Matthew Gowan, prosecuting, told the court how the hospital management had launched an investigation when they realised entries on the ward's drug register had been falsified.

He explained each ward had its own drug cabinet which could only be accessed by registered nurses or those in a more senior position.

When drugs were taken from, and returned to, this cabinet it had to be noted on a register.

Mr Gowan said: "Entries on this register had been falsified to make it seem as if drugs had been returned from the ward to the pharmacy when they had not."

When Gibson was interviewed by police it emerged that he had suffered from severe migraines for many years.

Mr Gowan said: "He had taken the drugs to administer to himself as an analgesic. There was no evidence that the drugs were going anywhere else other than him."

Sentencing Gibson to a six-month suspended sentence Judge Devaux said: "You have obviously lost your job and will never be able to work in that capacity again.

"For anyone in your position to do what you did is a serious breech of trust.

"It has the aggravating factor of causing suspicion to fall on persons other than yourself, but you are an otherwise respectable man of good character."

He was spared a more serious punishment due to exceptional family circumstances.