Company boss who sold £500k of illegal medical devices sentenced

A company director who sold £500,000 of illegal medical devices has been given a three-year suspended jail sentence.

Kenneth Harrison co-founded Medicina Ltd, a legitimate company selling medical goods, in 1991 but over the years began to regard proper testing and certification as merely "red tape" and an inconvenience, a court heard.

Manchester Crown Court was told he had also encouraged his staff to cover up his dishonesty by selling goods with false safety approval markings.

The 70-year-old, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, was convicted of five fraud offences between 2010 and 2014, following a 10-week trial earlier this year.

The hearing was told Harrison had sold goods bearing false "CE" markings to hospitals and clinics in the UK and worldwide, misleading buyers into believing they had passed EU-wide safety and regulatory approval.

Judge Timothy Smith sentenced Harrison to 175 hours of unpaid work alongside the suspended jail sentence.

He also disqualified the him from being a company director for eight years.

The judge told him: "The fact that you acted deliberately and dishonestly to cover fraudulent conduct is a matter of significant aggravation.

"You were prepared to invite staff, including your own son, to lie and hide your own conduct and regulatory failings.

"You have lost your good name and reputation."

Harrison's firm sold feeding pumps which were used in neonatal intensive care units and special care baby units to feed very sick newborn babies directly into their stomachs.

Due to the devices appearing compliant, NHS trusts had put them into use at hospitals across the UK and abroad.

His firm also sold gastrostomy "button" devices and blunt fill needles.

The court heard the devices represented only a small amount of the goods sold by Medicina and there was no evidence of any patient actually being harmed or put at any risk of serious harm by the devices.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency launched an investigation into Harrison.

It issued safety alerts and product recalls, ordering the firm to stop its supplies.

It has also begun confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act to recover any available funds from Harrison's criminal activity.

A date is yet to be fixed for the sentencing of Medicina Ltd.

Harrison is understood to have left the company.

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