"Clever" Conman Ordered To Pay £5.6M For Fake Medicine Scam

A "charming, clever and charismatic" businessman, who masterminded Europe's largest-ever fake-medicine scandal, was today ordered to pay £5.6m or spend an extra eight years in prison.

Chartered accountant Peter Gillespie, 67, of Carey Close, Windsor, Berkshire imported fake Chinese-manufactured drugs for life-threatening conditions with 100,000 doses ending up in patients hands.

He is currently serving eight years imprisonment for the scam and will have to serve an identical consecutive sentence if he does not comply with the Proceeds of Crime Act order within six months.

The once-respected twice-married pharmaceutical entrepreneur told Croydon Crown Court his only assets were £12 in a Post Office account - a statement described as “incredible” by the prosecution.

Gillespie was convicted on charges relating to fake '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.

Seventy-three thousand fake packets of medicines were imported into the UK via Belgium and Singapore by Gillespie's company Consolidated Medical Supplies and at least thirty-two thousands packets were prescribed to patients.

Today Judge Stephen Waller, who described Gillespie as a: “charming, clever and charismatic man,” when jailing him in April 2011 rejected his lies.

“Peter Gillespie is one of those defendants, who, if they want to, has the ability to hide assets. He is a trained accontant.”

The prosecution were unable to find a personal bank account or property in the defendant's name and he used his ex and currently estranged wife to channel funds, said the judge.

The proceeds from the sale of his French property ended up in a Swiss bank account and he controlled a “complicated web of companies” which could hide money all over the world.

“I find the defendant to have a criminal lifestyle,” added Judge Waller. “He was the dominant party and may have duped innocent business associates.”

Gillespie escaped prosecution for a €5.7m Royal Bank of Scotland ficticious invoice fraud a decade ago, which resulted in the liquidation of a former company and his bankrupsy.

Despite his apparent money troubles and a company director banning order Gillespie continued to live a lavish lifestyle, driving Bentley's, Ferrari's and top-of-the-range Mercedes owned by his Luxembourg-based company.

“There is a yawning chasm between the prosecution and defence positions, with the defendant saying he has no property anywhere in the world,” said the judge.

“The prosecution ascertion is that he has always hidden his assets and could have easily moved funds abroad.”

During his High Court bankrupsy Gillespie told the judge his laptop hard drive had been wiped when placed on the floor of an underground train.

“He lied on oath,” added Judge Waller. “That hard drive had been professionally wiped.

“I reject he has nothing to show for two substantial crimes. He must have assets.”

When Gillespie was sentenced Judge Waller told him: "They were high-value drugs that were in big demand for serious illnesses.

"They were manufactured at a factory in China and imported via Singapore and Brussels.

"They were very good counterfeits, the packaging looked just like the real thing and you knew they would go through quickly and be consumed with little trace."

Medicine watchdogs ordered a Class One recall of all the suspected drugs - resulting in shelves cleared in pharmacies all over the country and half of the fake packs recalled.

Gillespie was convicted after a four-month trial that between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007, he 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.

He was also convicted on two counts 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.

Gillespie was additionally found guilty of 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 six-and-a-half year prison sentence for a similar scam in the United States.