"It Was Not My Business" Says Ex-Director Accused Of Fake Medicine Scandal

An ex-company boss - accused of a multi-million pound plot to sell fake Chinese-made life-saving drugs - told a jury: "It was not my business."

Bristol-born Ian Harding, 58, of Lower Westwood, Bradford-on-Avon is standing trial with four other men who all deny being motivated by "pure greed" in Europe's biggest-ever counterfeit-medicine scandal.

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. (CMS).

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.

Former roadie Harding, who toured with Mudd and Kid Creole and the Coconuts, told Croydon Crown Court he was a CMS director in name only.

He had been one of the top salesmen at Staines-based Discpharm - a pharmaceutical wholesalers - earning £70,000 a year and switched to Kemco, run by one of his co-defendants, when the company folded.

Meanwhile, alleged ringleader Peter Gillespie, 64, of Carey Close, Windsor, Berkshire, who was bankrupt and banned from being a company director convinced Harding to become a director at new venture CMS.

"It was basically his company. He was running it and telling people what to do, not the other way around," Harding told the court in the third month of the trial.

He insisted his job with Kemco occupied all of his time and he was not involved in the day-to-day running of CMS.

"I think I only went to the CMS premises once as a director, I did not even have a key," Harding told the jury.

"I only went there once because Peter asked me to sign some cheques.

"I never bought anything for CMS or sold anything for CMS."

Harding said Peter was an expert in profiting from the importation of French-manufactured medicines and re-packaging them for the U.K. and continental markets.

"He is the best buyer in the business. A good honest man to deal with," said the defendant. "I did not know how it worked or where it came from, but I knew it was profitable.

"It was not my business."

The other defendants are: Peter's brother Ian Gillespie, 58, of The Green, Marsh Baldon, Oxford; Ex-Kemco boss Richard Kemp, 61, of School Lane, Y Waen, Flint Mountain, Clwyd and James Quinn, 69, of Gillespie House, Holloway Drive, Virginia Water, Surrey.

Half of 73,000 packets of counterfeit pharmaceuticals were recovered - leaving approximately 100,000 doses of fake medication in the hands of patients.

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.

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.

Trial continues...................