Toxic skin product sales end in first jailing
A SHOPKEEPER has been jailed for 20 months for selling illegal and toxic skin lightening products, in the first custodial sentence of its kind.
Mohammed Iqbal Bharodawala, 45, and his company – Jenny’s Cosmetics Ltd – admitted nine charges of selling the products which contain banned ingredient hydroquinone.
The father-of-six also admitted 15 charges relating to inadequate labelling of the harmful products, which were confiscated by Southwark Council in January.
Hydroquinone, banned in the UK in 2001, causes skin damage and is linked to damage of the liver and nervous system.
The businessman was also disqualified from being a company director for four years, and the company fined £1,500.
His 35-year-old brother, Abdul Kadar Bharodawala, who ran a shop Jenny’s Online Ltd, was sentenced to 80 hours’ unpaid work at Inner London Crown Court, and the company fined £500. His charges related to the marketing of products containing hydroquinone and a failure to label them properly.
Sentencing them yesterday, Judge Freya Newbery said: “There’s no doubt that you knew what your obligations were as a distributor of cosmetics products and you should not have been marketing products which contained banned substances, especially hydroquinone. I’m quite satisfied you knew exactly what you were selling.”
An inspection by Southwark Council in January led to 260 items being seized from the shop floor and stockroom at Jenny’s Cosmetics in East Street, southeast London.
A test purchase of three products advertised on eBay revealed that similar products were also being sold by Jenny’s Online Ltd, which was run by father-of-four Abdul.