Latvians sold over £1 million of fake drugs

A Latvian couple who sold over £1 million worth of fake drugs have escaped jail.

Karina Filimonova, 36, and Andrejis Stolarov, 32, made at least £64,000 peddling back street medication for baldness, erectile dysfunction and other conditions.

They were caught after a Royal Mail sting intercepted packages containing unauthorised medicines between March and November 2020.

Filimonova and Stolarov were both caught on CCTV taking drugs to be delivered to post offices across England and Wales and collecting the fakes from the wholesaler.

At their flat one million doses of medicine were found, worth £1.5 million.

Michael Attenborough, prosecuting, said: ‘In August 2019 the Royal Mail began an operation intercepting packages at the post office.’

‘That operation uncovered hundreds of packages containing unauthorised medicines.

CCTV captured both Filimonova and Stolarov taking packages to the post office and from the car park up to their flat in Maidenhead.

‘On 18 November 2020 investigators searched the defendants’ address,’ the prosecutor said.

‘The flat contained 765 boxes containing unlicensed medicines. 1.3 million doses were found in the flat, worth £1.5 million.’

There were 117 different products belonging to 65 different brands.
The medicines were for a number of conditions, including hair loss and erectile dysfunction, the court heard.

Journals and notepads and journals with handwritten lists of the drugs and various addresses were also found in the flat.

‘Each received £4,000 a month in wages,’ the prosecutor said.

‘They received their wages in cash it seems across eight months.

‘During the search £23,410 was found in cash, no doubt representing part of their income for what was going on.

‘The total number of doses seized was 1.5 million, all unlicensed medicines.’

Robert Slinn, defending, said: ‘These are willing participants but they became aware after they had joined that they had taken on more than they had appreciated.’

‘Ms Filimonova expressed a desire to opt out, to leave but they never got as far as leaving the operation.’

Mr Slinn told the court that both were in a difficult financial situation at the time during the Covid pandemic.

‘Ms Filimonova had recently been made redundant, Mr Stolarov was self-employed, and it was 2020 with all that that brought.’

‘They are both hard working and loving parents.’

Sentencing the couple the judge, Ms Recorder Naomi Hawkes said: ‘Unlicensed medicines pose a serious risk to public health and safety. Their efficacy can be compromised, and false substances and drugs may contain toxic doses and dangerous ingredients and may cause mass poisoning.

‘Poor quality medicine can compromise the treatment of chronic and infectious diseases, causing disease progression and potentially drug resistance and so could possibly cause death.

‘By selling unlicensed medical products, you endangered the lives of others.

‘As a household you received about £64,000 in the period in question. I accept that some expenses may have come out of that income, but it is clear that there was significant financial gain to you.’

The judge acknowledged that the couple have a five month old baby and a 10-year-old son.

‘You present a low risk to the public in terms of further offending.

‘There hasn’t been any further offending, and, having considered the pre-sentence report, there is a real prospect of rehabilitation.

They were both given a prison sentence of eight months suspended for 18 months.

They will have to complete 20 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement, and 150 hours of unpaid work.

Filimonova, of Tadley, Hampshire, and Stolarov, also of Tadley, admitted possessing and selling unauthorised medicines.