UK Court Declares War on Natural Health

To download the full press release (which has this morning been circulated to the entire UK media) as a PDF document, including the Editor's Notes that provide more details on this important case, please click here.

Jim Wright, from Port Talbot in South West Wales, ran a small business selling natural products.  Like many involved in natural health, Jim wanted to help — not only his family and himself, but also others.  Jim's caring nature and concern for the suffering of others ultimately got him into trouble.  In fact, it made him a criminal. 

Find out how the UK medicines regulator, in cahoots with the BBC, set him up.  This is an astonishing case about persecution and prosecution.  Yesterday, Jim received his sentence from Swansea's Crown Court.  Jim and his family have been through hell and back, yet he's not beaten — he's going to appeal.

Alliance for Natural Health Press Release: Vitamin seller made a criminal

After three years of apparent persecution by the UK medicines regulator, a Swansea man, Jim Wright, was yesterday criminalized by the Swansea Crown Court for selling vitamins and herbs.

Jim Wright had operated a small business selling natural health products for some years before being raided for the first time in May 2003, then again two years later, by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA).  During these unannounced dawn raids, his stock was taken, thus preventing him from running his business.  The vast majority of his stock comprised common garden herbal products, which can legally be bought from high street health food stores across the UK.

Emerging from the Court room, Wright said:

I think, given the wealth of false evidence that was presented in Court, the whole thing's been a total farce.  Yet, in the process, they've managed to make me a criminal.  The Judge gave me a £1000 fine — £1000 that I haven't got — and 120 hours of unpaid community service. 

I was accused of selling products that I wasn't selling; and we even showed the Court that the supplier of vitamin B-17 — as found in apricot kernels — was itself shut down by the US Food & Drug Administration on September 30, 2003.  They found nothing in two raids on my house.  I was set up.

The government's first shot

Wright, like others who had been selling vitamin B-17 up until it was made illegal in 2002, was made aware of the change in government policy, and withdrew the product from sale.  He had always made a point of complying with any advice or requests by the UK medicines enforcement agency.

In 2003, the MHRA worked with BBC Wales to entrap Wright.  A women and her partner who, he was told, had a myeloma in the leg that had been operated on and that had subsequently spread, approached Jim Wright with a view to buying products that would help the cancer patient.  The couple forced Wright to meet them in a car park on two separate occasions to deliver a range of natural health products.  Wright thought this a most strange request, yet the customers were adamant this is how they wanted their products delivered.  They filmed him covertly the first time, but on the second occasion, the cameras were revealed as he passed over the products.  He was devastated to find the customers were really a BBC reporter and her perfectly healthy colleague.

Shortly after this, Wright saw himself on the BBC, being made out to be a criminal, despite the fact the products he was selling were 100% legal.  About one week later, the MHRA raided him, confiscating all of his stock, and so handicapping his small business operation.

No legal proceedings followed, but Mr Wright's stock was not returned — even after three requests.  The enforcers went peculiarly quiet on Mr Wright.

The government takes another shot

Two years later, Wright received an order for vitamin B-17.  Unknown to him, the order was from an MHRA enforcer who, posing as a member of the public, presented a heart-wrenching story about her husband dying of prostate cancer.  The lady was very specific about her desire for vitamin B-17, which Wright was well aware had been banned some years earlier.  Wright made it clear that he could no longer sell B-17 and had none in stock.  After continuous pressure, however, Wright succumbed to providing a single pot that he still had in his home office, which had been returned to him by a customer and that he hadn't yet posted back to the original supplier in Mexico.  He was given a mailing address, which happened to be the accommodation address for the MHRA.  On receipt of the product, a warrant was obtained from Bow Street Magistrates and, in May 2005, Wright was raided for a second time.

Speaking about this second raid, Jim Wright said:

They were hoping to find a big stash of vitamin B-17 — that was what they said they were after when they barged into my home.  They, of course, found nothing.  So, they took all my stock — again; all my accounts, a folder with all of my correspondence with the MHRA and another with thank-you letters and customer contact details.  It was frightening — and deeply disturbing.

Dr Robert Verkerk, executive director of the Alliance for Natural Health responded today to Wright's sentencing:

The Swansea Crown Court Judge took the opportunity to condemn the natural products industry.  He said the manufacturers of these supplements are exploiting people's misery and making lots of money out of them.  Jim Wright, he said, was a victim, and clearly hadn't made a lot of money himself.

Reflecting on the sentencing, Verkerk added:

To prey on someone's intent to help others — to set them up like this — is astonishing and deeply unethical.  Jim Wright and his family have been through hell and back; his business has been irreparably damaged, yet no illegal products were found in either raid.  The lack of reasons given during and after the raids, and the confiscation of legal stock — that included extra virgin olive oil — beggars belief.  We are heartened to hear that Jim Wright and his legal counsel have every intention of mounting an Appeal.

It is expected that Jim Wright's Appeal against his prosecution will be launched within 9 months.

Contact point for all media (UK and international):

Dr Robert Verkerk or Meleni Aldridge
Alliance for Natural Health
The Atrium, Curtis Road, Dorking RH4 1XA, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1306 646 600
Fax: +44 (0)1306 646 552
Email: info@anhcampaign.org