The alleged ringleader of a multi-million pound counterfeit-medicines plot - Europe's biggest ever - told a jury this week he did not know the drugs were Chinese-manufactured fakes.
Folkestone-born Peter Gillespie, 64, of Carey Close, Windsor, Berkshire - formerly of High Street, Bovingdon, Hemel Hempstead - is accused of being motivated by "pure greed" when selling three types fake life-saving medicines.
"I did not know these were counterfeit," he told the Croydon Crown Court jury. "I have been twenty-five years in the pharmaceutical business. I had never seen a counterfeit.
"Counterfeits are extremely rare in the pharmaceutical business, but like buses three come along here."
Medicine watchdogs ordered a Class One recall of all suspected drugs - taken by heart and cancer patients and the mentally ill - resulting in shelves cleared in pharmacies all over the country.
Charges were brought following a two-year investigation by the Medicines and Health Care products Regulatory Agency, part of the Department of Health into Consolidated Medical Supplies Ltd.
The company, of Unit 14, Sherrington Way, Lister Road, Industrial Estate, Basingstoke, had its Wholesale Dealers Licence revoked by the MHRA on January 8, 2008.
The prosecution claim banned company director Gillespie was secretly running the company, which rose from the ashes of Staines-based Discpharm, which the defendant had run.
"I only wanted to be a consultant, I could not be a director," Gillespie told the court. "I filed my own bankruptcy, my lawyers loaned me the money to file for bankruptcy."
Qualified chartered accountant Gillespie, who turned his back on a future in the City to bail-out a struggling pharmaceutical company, launched the re-branded Discpharm on August 1, 1986.
He admits he was excited by the vast potential profits available - as much as 100%-plus - by simply re-labelling cheaper European medicines for the U.K. market.
"When I started I only wanted to deal with large companies to ensure I would be paid and latterly only dealt with multi-national companies," Gillespie told the jury.
"Frankly, I was amazed at the profits. Some were over 100%. I thought this looked a very interesting business.
"I thought it was much too potentially profitable to ignore and for me it was easy to see where we can concentrate on the products where we were making a lot of money."
Medicines from France, Italy, Belgium and Spain were all re-packaged in English, first with the help of a team of middle-aged women Discpharm employed and then with more efficient machinery.
"They had been historically cheaper in Europe than the UK and we were working on that margin," explained Gillespie.
The company was one of the first to supply Lloyds Pharmacy when it only had twelve stores and continued supplying when it had over one thousand branches.
"We were selling tens and twenties of thousands, which allowed me to buy in large volumes from European wholesalers.
"Being an accountant I just wanted to make as much money out of it I could.
"We were making profits of over one million pounds a year. We were making so much money it was beyond my wildest dreams," added the defendant.
The charges relate to 'Casodex', used to treat advanced prostate cancer, 'Plavix', a drug prescribed to prevent blood clots and prevent heart attacks for angina patients and 'Zyprexa' a anti-psychotic drug prescribed to schizophrenic and bipolar patients.
The other four defendants are: Peter's brother Ian Gillespie, 58, of Marsh Baldon, Oxford; Ian Harding, 58, of Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire; James Quinn, 69, of Virginia Water, Surrey and Richard Kemp, 61, of Flint Mountain, Clwyd.
All five have pleaded not guilty that between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007, they conspired together and with others to defraud pharmaceutical wholesalers, pharmacists, the public and holders of Intellectual Property Rights in pharmaceuticals by dishonestly distributing for gain counterfeit medicines.
They also deny two counts each of selling or supplying the three drugs without authorisation and selling or supplying counterfeit goods, namely the three medicines, between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007.
Peter Gillespie alone denies one count of breaching a company director disqualification order between July, 2005 and June, 2007, following his bankruptcy.
The drugs were manufactured by the notorious Chinese pharmaceutical counterfeiter Lu Xu aka Kevin Xu, currently serving a prison sentence for a similar scam in the United States.
His bogus drugs were imported via Singapore and Belgium before being ferried and driven into the U.K and distributed by the five defendants, allege the prosecution.
No comments:
Post a Comment