Jim
Wright is put on Trial
by the MHRA for Selling Low Price Vitamins and Alternative Remedies 14/7/06
________________________________
In
(while Merck’s drug VIOXX kills over 30,000 but
British Claimants are Denied Legal Aid)
by Martin J Walker
Jim Wright is in his early sixties and lives in
From the
beginning Jim had problems with the regulatory agencies. Soon after beginning
to trade, he was visited by an employee of his local Trading Standards
Office, however, they found no problems with his site, his advertising or his
stock, telling him that he would be all right as long as he made no claims.
The more deeply involved Jim got in
alternative treatments the more interested he became in the battle going on
between the pharmaceutical companies and alternatives. In April 2002 he
became a member of Dr Rath’s organisation and in 2003 Jim and his wife
attended a three day symposium in
In April 2003,
Jim received a phone call from a woman calling herself Jayne. She
told him that her partner Simon had cancer and asked if Jim could sell her a
‘cure’. Alert to the possibilities of entrapment, Jim was careful in
explaining to the woman that he was not a medical practitioner and he could
make no claims at all for any of the products which he stocked.
Jim was right
to be careful, for the woman posing as Jayne was actually a mercenary fraudster
who also posed as a journalist while working for the BBC. Inevitably, Jim
wanted to help her partner and so attended two meetings with Jayne and Simon
selling them products which they chose from his stock. At the time this
subterfuge was being enacted, Jim had a call from the Medicines Control Agency
(MCA) which wanted to arrange a meeting to discuss his web site. It transpired
later, that the meeting was scheduled for two days after the Week In Week Out programme which the fraudster Jayne was
producing.
The item
eventually screened by the BBC for Week
In Week Out, was entitled ‘Bogus Cancer Cure’. As is common with
programmes of this type, it portrayed Jim Wright as a quack, whose
business lapped well into the criminal. Jim was traumatised by the television
program and suspected more entrapment could be involved in his meeting with the
MCA. To safeguard himself, he phoned the agency and told them he could not
attend the arranged meeting.
A week after the programme, four staff
from the MHRA in plain clothes together with a local trading standards officer
called at Jim’s house at
Three months after the early morning
‘raid’, in August, Jim was called by the MCA to a formal interview which was
arranged for
For
sixteen months after the meeting, Jim continued with his business. He saw no
sign of the stock which had been stolen from his premises and had quickly
passed its sell by date, nor was there a whisper about any charges. His
business suffered badly from the distorted and unethical view of him presented
on television and it took him months to live down the judgmental views of those
who had seen the lying programme but didn’t know him.
In
May 2005, Jim received a second early morning visit from officers of the MCA.
The agency had changed its name to the Medicines and Health Care Products
Regulatory Agency (MHHRA) but was still paid for almost entirely by Big Pharma.
As on the last occasion, the vultures were accompanied by a local Trading
Standards officer. Again Jim’s premises were searched and again his whole stock
was removed, together with all the paper work for his business. Also taken was
his ongoing correspondence of complaint with the MCA aka the MHRA. This time,
Jim was left with a receipt which boldly claimed that all the items taken
were ‘SUSPECTED MEDICINES’, including the natural sweetener Stevia that he had
in stock.
The
May 2005 visit, like the previous one, left utter silence in its wake. No
charges accrued, there was no return of his stock, no apology, in fact no
explanation of any kind. Sick to death of the extra curricular harassment by
the bogus regulatory agency, Jim found himself a lawyer. Over a period of three
months, the lawyer wrote firm but polite letters to the MHRA enquiring about
the nature of the unaccountable raids on Jim’s home and querying the possible
return of his stock.
The
result of these solicitor’s letters, predictable to anyone with a criminal
caste of mind, was a series of criminal charges – inevitably what happens if
you make enquiries about unaccountable powers. In June of this year, over one
year after the second raid and over three years after the first, and
notwithstanding the exchange between Jim, the MCA and MHRA, Jim Wright was
charged with a range of offences under the Medicines Act and other regulatory
legislation.
Jim’s case will appear before Swansea Bench in August of this year. He is
hoping that he will receive a great deal of support from alternative health
groups and he is also hoping that the case has a similar outcome to that
of Roy McKinnon, who was also featured in the BBC Week In Week Out programme. This costly charade was brought to a
premature end when the Judge chided the prosecution asking them, why they
brought a case claiming that the
defendant had said he could cure cancer, when they had not a jot of evidence
for this.
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Letters to
newspapers and letters to the MHRA drawing attention to this case and the
criminal failure of the MHRA to regulate Big Pharma and protect the public
health, will be welcome.
At the time of
the trial, as much support as can be mobilised should be organised.
Demonstrations outside the court and outside the MHRA offices will be wellcome.
You can contact Jim Wright and offer your support by
sending messages to Bigpharmavsjimwright@hotmail.co.uk