‘Flabjab’ boss must pay £800,000 for selling disfiguring treatment

Duncan Williams, 51, and his wife Dr Yelena Watkins sold soya bean extract Lipostabil under the name Flabjab as an alternative to liposuction.

She appeared on Channel 4's Richard and Judy Show as they promoted Flabjab on TV, over the internet and in magazines.

But Lipostabil is unauthorised and unlicensed in the UK where doctors have warned of the risks that it can trigger serious allergic reactions.

The couple boasted staggering results and ignored repeated demands by health officials to stop selling it at a time when they were making up to £25,000 a week from consultations and treatments, the Old Bailey heard.

In 10 months more than 1,000 patients were treated with the product at clinics around the country.

Williams and his company Lipomed Ltd each admitted two charges under the Medicines Act. Judge Martin Stephens imposed a £5,000 fine on the company and Williams, who was the sole director, and ordered the confiscation of £800,000 of his assets. The judge made a similar confiscation order on the company but accepted it had only £23,000 in its bank account.

Williams must also pay his defence costs and a further £20,000 towards the cost of prosecuting him.

However, the judge declined to order him to pay compensation to two patients who suffered reactions to the treatments — including Pauline Bailey who was permanently disfigured — and did not disqualify Williams from being a company director in the future.

"These were serious breaches of the Medicines Act, not least because Williams pursued Lipomed's activities after due warnings from the authorities," said the judge. "This sort of case does not appear in this court very often."

Dr Watkins died in a motorway accident in November 2006, leaving an estate valued at more than £2.3 million. At a hearing last month the court heard that Flabjab was offered at clinics as far apart as Chesterfield, Cardiff and Birmingham. But in 2004 the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority wrote to the couple ordering them to stop using the product.

Williams said he had taken legal advice and the Flabjab was a "treatment" and not a "medical product" and he continued selling it. In October of the following year the authority raided the Lipomed offices and seized £10,000 worth of the product.

David Hoffman, defending, told the court Williams had run an air-conditioning firm and had been "a typical West Midlands businessman" until his wife
suggested starting the firm.

Williams said his wife had developed the treatment and was so convinced it was harmless she tested it on herself.

'I can't look in the mirror'

PAULINE BAILEY was left so traumatised she cannot bring herself to look in the mirror.

Mrs Bailey, 67, of Kingston, permanently disfigured after she was injected twice in the face and the neck with Flabjab.

The Old Bailey heard how Mrs Bailey immediately felt her lower face and neck becoming swollen.

The pain was so chronic she could not sleep lying down, using a sling to support her neck. John Law, prosecuting, said: "The swelling and numbness lasted for weeks.

"She feels the treatment altered the structure of her face, and feels upset about her appearance each time she looks in the mirror."

Mrs Bailey paid £300 for each of the injections, later learning Dr Watkins had bought the soya-based product for £5 a shot.