Gang Jailed for Fake Propecia Scam

Three men have been jailed for their part in a multi-million pound global conspiracy to sell fake Viagra and the drug Propecia used to treat male hair loss.

Salesman Gary Haywood, 59, of Leicester, was jailed for six years, and student Ashwin Patel, 25, from north London, for 18 months.

Zahid Mirza, 46, of Ilford, Essex, who absconded from bail and was not in court, was given two-and-a-half years.

The judge said the gang had placed customers at "unacceptable risk".

He added that their main motivation had been greed.

At Kingston Crown Court, sentencing judge Nicholas Price told Haywood and Patel it was important to impose sentences that would deter others from becoming involved in what was "undoubtedly a lucrative business".

"Greed is the overriding motivation to such offences," he said.

"The scale of this criminal enterprise was truly global. It was long-running, it was highly organised and it was conducted with total and cynical disregard for unsuspecting and vulnerable customers."

He said Haywood, who was convicted of 11 counts of conspiring to sell fake medicines, money laundering and selling medicines without a wholesalers' license, had enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle as a result of his criminal activities.

He told him: "You demonstrated yourself to be deceitful, unscrupulous and determined."

Investigators from UK regulatory body the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) say the case was the biggest counterfeit drugs bust in British history.

All three men were found guilty on a number of counts of conspiring to sell fake medicines at Kingston Crown Court in August.

A fourth man Ashish Halai, 33, of Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, was jailed for four-and-a-half years last month.

Haywood, Patel, and businessman Mirza were part of a gang which smuggled copies of Viagra and medicines to treat male baldness.

The court had previously heard that Patel was drawn into the scam by his brother-in-law Halai.

The fake medicines were made in factories in India, China and Pakistan.

A chance interception by UK customs officers of a parcel containing 12,000 fake Viagra tablets addressed to Haywood led to a huge investigation spanning three continents.

The drugs were bought from suppliers for as little as 25p but sold on the internet for up to £20 per tablet.

The supply ring sold tens of thousands of tablets in the UK, America, the Bahamas and Mexico.

Investigators are still trying to uncover how much profit was made from the three-and-a-half year enterprise.

Mick Deats, head of enforcement at MHRA, said: "This is the biggest drugs counterfeiting case to be brought by the MHRA to date.

"The conviction of these individuals sends a clear message to those engaged in such criminal activity, which puts peoples' lives at risk, that we will not hesitate to use the full force of the law against them."