"Rare case of counterfeit medicine manufactured in UK"
A Fulham man who gave up a career as a university lecturer to manufacture illegal homemade sex pills has been jailed for 40 months at the Old Bailey.
Chistiaan Winkel, 32, quit his job at University College London hoping to make a fortune manufacturing fake Cialis C20 pills.
These pills, which are legally manufactured by Lilly UK, are used to treat erectile disfunction.
The Old Bailey heard that Winkel, who is Dutch, set up a laboratory in an east London flat where he also planned to make ecstasy.
He imported a pill-making machine and precursor chemicals from China, producing samples to show a "potential dealer". Unfortunately for Winkel however, the the dealer proved to be undercover police who he had unwittingly contacted on a website.
Winkel admitted conspiracy to defraud Lilly UK and conspiracy to manufacture ecstasy.
The judge, Recorder Douglas Day, QC, told him: "You are a highly-intelligent man with great talent. It is a tragedy to find you here."
Det Insp Doug Blackwood said after the trial: "The millionaire lifestyle he hoped this crime would fund must now seem a very long way away."
Winkel's runner Safa Ba Seidi, 36, of Tottenham, north London, admitted conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to supply ecstasy, and was jailed for 21 months.
Winkel's girlfriend, Yuly Sandoval Mora, 33, of Holloway, north London, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and was given an eight month suspended sentence.
Mick Deats, of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, said: "This is a rare case of counterfeit medicines being manufactured in the UK. We generally find that counterfeit medicines found in this country have originated from the Far East."
25-Feb-2011
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