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A tribunal judge has dismissed an appeal against an Integrated Care Board’s (ICB) decision in February to reject a pharmacy entry application after it found the superintendent pharmacist had failed to declare a historic fitness to practise investigation.

Following a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, on August 25 Tribunal Judge Trueman rejected the appeal from La Vie Health Care Limited against South East London ICB’s decision to refuse its application to open a pharmacy in Bromley.

The application followed a dispute with La Vie’s previous landlord in the south London neighbourhood of Charlton that saw the owners evicted and locked out of the pharmacy in 2022 and unable to retrieve the medicines left behind.

The company subsequently sought to open a pharmacy in nearby Mottingham under the impression that because it shared the same SE9 postcode as its previous pharmacy, it would come under the same health board jurisdiction – meaning a relocation application would be required.

However, as the pharmacy was in fact in the Bromley health board area, they were advised that a full fitness to practise declaration was required.

Two applications in March and July 2024 were rejected for reasons that were not relevant to the recent court hearing. 

On a third application form submitted in December 2024, the section asking whether there were any current or previous fitness to practise issues had been ticked ‘no’ – despite the fact that superintendent pharmacist Eberechukwa Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe received a warning in 2018 after it was found the Charlton pharmacy did not have indemnity insurance in place, something Ms Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe quickly rectified at the time.

Ms Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe said that at the time the form was submitted she was “preoccupied” with litigation with her previous landlord as well as significant financial difficulties facing the business, adding that she did not believe the indemnity insurance issue amounted to a fitness to practise concern. 

She also said she was unaware of the outcome of the GPhC’s investigation, but a late evidence submission of emails between the ICB and the regulator contradicted this.

The judge found that when the ICB raised the previous FtP investigation with her, she “doubled down” on her previously stated position that it was not necessary to resubmit her declaration, rather than explain the circumstances of the regulator’s 2017 investigation and subsequent warning.

The tribunal stated: “Ms Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe had almost nothing to gain from such dishonesty, and the tragedy here is that... had Ms Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe declared the position accurately [in a September 2025 email to the ICB], the NHS would almost certainly have accepted her explanation and moved on to consider the rest of La Vie's application.”

Judge Trueman sided with the ICB, finding that its decision to refuse the application was “a reasonable and proportionate step”.