 He began working at Pontefract General Infirmary in Pontefract, West Riding of Yorkshire, and in 1974 took his first position as a general practitioner (GP) at the Abraham Ormerod Medical Centre in Todmorden.In the following year, he was caught forging prescriptions of pethidine (Demerol) for his own use.Shipman was fined £600, and briefly attended a drug rehabilitation clinic in York.