PRESS RELEASE: Vitamin seller made a criminal

Jim Wright, from Port Talbot in South West Wales, ran a small business selling natural products. Like many involved in natural health, Jim wanted to help not only his family and himself, but also others. Jim’s caring nature and concern for the suffering of others ultimately got him into trouble. In fact, it made him a criminal. Find out how the UK medicines regulator, in cahoots with the BBC, set him up. This is an astonishing case about persecution and prosecution. Yesterday, Jim received his sentence from Swansea’s Crown Court. Jim and his family have been through hell and back, yet  he’s not beaten – he’s going to appeal.

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The text of the release is given below:

Vitamin seller made a criminal

After three years of apparent persecution by the UK medicines regulator, a Swansea man, Jim Wright, was yesterday criminalised by the Swansea Crown Court for selling vitamins and herbs.

Jim Wright had operated a small business selling natural health products for some years before being raided for the first time in May 2003, then again two years later, by the Medicines & Healthcare regulatory Authority (MHRA). During these unannounced dawn raids, his stock was taken, thus preventing him from running his business. The vast majority of his stock comprised common garden herbal products the like of which can legally be bought from high street health food stores across the UK.

Emerging from the Court room, Wright said,