Shop Owner Receives Confiscation Order

The owner of a cosmetics shop selling unlicensed pharmaceuticals was ordered to repay £64,553.57 along with £13,000 for fines and £3,000 in costs at the Inner London Crown Court on the 6th of March 2009.

At Camberwell Magistrates Court on the 22nd of January 2008, the man, aged 43 of Lewisham, South East London pleaded guilty to a variety of offences. These offences were committed under The Medicine Act 1968, Consumer Protection Act 1987 and The Trade Marks Act 1994.

Southwark Trading Standards officers worked alongside an MHRA investigator, on attachment to London RART, to conduct their investigation into the man.

The agencies worked together and discovered he was continuing to sell unlicensed pharmaceuticals and banned cosmetics. This was being carried out at his business premises, Peckham Cosmetics in Rye Lane, despite previous warnings from trading standards.

On the 24th of August 2006, Southwark trading standards seized a significant amount of banned and unlicensed products from the premises.
Analysis of the seized exhibits found the presence of hydroquinone in the cosmetics, which can lead to long term health implications to the skin. Steroids were found in the pharmaceutical products which cause long term health implications.

A financial investigation was carried out into the man's illegal earnings by an MHRA financial investigator attached to London RART. 

He was given 2 months to satisfy the £64,553.57 confiscation order or he will face 12 months in prison.

DI Ella Marriott of the London RART said, "The use of The Proceeds of Crime Act has been crucial in this case. It has shown that those criminals such as this man, who supply dangerous pharmaceuticals, will not retain the benefit of their criminality. This significant confiscation is part of the ongoing partnership between RART and the MHRA, who are committed to making sure that crime does not pay"