Jail for skin cream seller
Global sales of skin-lightening products marketed by cosmetic companies are worth £3.9bn a year.
You might think it sad that we live in a society where there’s pressure on some people to change the natural colour of their skin.
Worse, there’s a hidden market in skin-lightening creams that are cheaper than the major brands, but could come at a deadly cost.
This illegal trade is widespread.
In 2016, I told how three shops in the same street had been prosecuted for selling creams containing the banned bleaching agent hydroquinone, which can cause cancer, as well as liver and kidney failure.
Now the first shopkeeper has been jailed for selling illegal skin-whitening products.
Mohammed Bharodawala, 45, of Jenny’s Cosmetics in Southwark, South London, was given a 20-month sentence.
While under investigation by trading standards, he was caught by the UK Border Agency trying to sneak more banned products into the country. He’s got previous, being sentenced in 2015 to a 12-month suspended sentence and £1,300 fine for similar offences. His brother Abdul Bharodawala, 35, ran the business’s online operation selling the same creams, and was given 80 hours community work. Judge Freya Newberry, at Inner London crown court, said they had tried to profit from “exploiting the anxieties and sensitivities of women and men who are culturally and socially motivated to lighten their skin”. Since January 2016, 77 shops and businesses have been prosecuted by London Trading Standards alone for selling illegal skin-whiteners – racking up fines and orders for costs totalling £377,094. Speaking after this week’s sentencing, Councillor Evelyn Akoto, of Southwark Council, said: “This prosecution is just the tip of the iceberg and sends out a strong message to all the vendors of illegal skin-lightening creams that we are actively pursuing you. “We are going to seek you out and prosecute you as and when we find you.”