LONDON, November 28 2004
PTI
A UK-based Non-Resident Indian has been sentenced to five-and-a-half
years in prison after he was found guilty of manufacturing fake drugs,
including viagra tablets, in a six-million-pound secret factory at Wembley
in London.
Forty-four-year-old Valentine alias Anant Babu Patel pleaded guilty
at the Harrow Crown Court to conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and
two charges involving contraventions of the Trade Marks Act and Medicines
Act.
The court on Friday sentenced him to five and a half years in Wormwood
Scrubs prison and ordered confiscation of his cars and bank accounts.
Two other men were also sentenced for a string of drug offences in
the case.
Davin Pattni, 26, was sentenced to three years while Paul Donovan Austin,
39, received an 18-month suspended sentence for assembling medicinal
products.
According to the police, Valentine was found to have changed his name
from Anant Babu Patel in the late 1980s.
He had also adopted the title of doctor, although he had no medical
qualifications.
It is believed that Valentine, who had basic chemistry qualification,
built up a knowledge of drugs while working as a sales representative
for Pfizer, the drug company that manufactures Viagra, at its headquarters
in Sandwich, Kent, in 1990.
He went on to teach himself about manufacturing processes from the
internet and books, sourcing machinery from contacts in Mumbai