Fake Covid-19 kits gave vulnerable ‘false hope’
A man from East Marden has avoided jail after admitting making and selling counterfeit coronavirus treatment kits.
Frank Ludlow, 59, was sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court last week, having been arrested by City of London Police in March.
He was given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to complete unpaid work.
The court heard Ludlow had made around £12,000 from selling the kits – which allegedly contained chemicals which are ‘extremely harmful’.
Police found300treatment kits and an estimated 20 litres of chemicals at Ludlow’s home.
City of London
Police’s detective chief superintendent Clinton
Blackburn said after the sentence: “Criminals are preying on people’s fears and anxieties, using the coronavirus outbreak to take their money.
“The kits were unlawful and untested. They gave false hope to vulnerable people and their families, offering no medical benefit. This raises the possibility people with Covid-19 could believe they were cured, thereby inadvertently exposing others to infection.”
A man who admitted making counterfeit coronavirus treatment kits and sending them across the world avoided jail.
Frank Ludlow, 59, of East Marden, appearing at Portsmouth Crown Court after he was arrested by City of London Police in March over supplying fraudulent ‘self-assembly’ Covid-19 treatment kits, was sentenced to ten months’ jail suspended for two years.
Ludlow will also have to complete 170 hours of unpaid work after admitting three fraud charges including attempting to supply an unauthorised medicinal product, as well as possessing and assembling an unauthorised product.
The defendant, initially set to face a five-day trial starting on August 17, was arrested at a post office near his home after 60 coronavirus ‘treatment kits’ were seized by police in the US.
The kits, sent from the UK and intercepted by Customs and Border Protection Agency officers in Los Angeles, were labelled as ‘Anti-pathogenic treatment’, City of London Police said.
They allegedly contained chemicals which are ‘extremely harmful’ when the user is instructed to wash and rinse their mouth with them. Police also found 300 treatment kits and an estimated 20 litres of chemicals at Ludlow’s home.
Officers stopped 60 kits being sent from a post office to France, the US and within the UK, police said.
The court heard Ludlow made about £12,000 from selling the fake kits online, which sold for between £1 and £100 but cost £1 to make.
The kits contained an unknown enzyme, hydrogen peroxide concentration, potassium thiocyanate, ascorbic acid and bee pollen.
City of London Police’s detective chief superintendent Clinton
Blackburn said after the sentence: “Criminals are preying on people’s fears and anxieties, using the coronavirus outbreak to take their money. The kits were unlawful and untested. They gave false hope to vulnerable people and their families, offering no medical benefit. This raises the possibility people with Covid-19 could believe they were cured, thereby inadvertently exposing others to infection.
“The swift, joined-up action taken by police and our regulatory partners across the globe, shows there are no boundaries to our work in fighting fraud, protecting the public and bringing criminals to justice, even during these unprecedented times.”