Three men were jailed yesterday after stealing nearly £1m of weight loss drugs from a pharmaceutical distribution site.
Hertfordshire police said Mark Harding, 55, of Chertsey Road, Feltham, Peter Costello, 44, of Sydney Road, Sutton, and Robert Townsend, 59, of Lower Pillory Down, Carshalton, stole 79 boxes of Mounjaro worth £944,554 across two visits to Phoenix Healthcare in St Albans in January.
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All three men pleaded guilty to burglary and were sentenced to five years and three months in prison at St Albans Crown Court.
Harding and Townsend also pleaded guilty to possession of criminal property and were each handed an additional nine-month prison sentence to be served concurrently.
Cash found
Harding and Costello first “forced entry” to Phoenix Healthcare just before 6:40pm on January 24, and “blacked out internal cameras” before stealing “several boxes” of Mounjaro from a refrigerated storage unit, Hertfordshire Constabulary said.
It added that they returned, along with Townsend, to remove more than 70 additional boxes of Mounjaro “less than two hours later”.
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The three men were arrested on February 11 and in the search of Townsend and Harding’s homes, more than £60,000 in cash was recovered “hidden amongst picnic baskets and extractor fans”.
Harding’s “distinctive clothing”, seen on CCTV “shortly before the offence and again inside the pharmaceutical premises while it was taking place”, linked him to the burglary.
The Crown Prosecution Service said a car, and a van fitted with cloned number plates, were found at Townsend’s home after the burglary, and automatic number plate recognition cameras showed “both vehicles travelling towards St Albans on the day the drugs were stolen”.
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Phone location data also placed Costello and Townsend “in the vehicles and close to the distribution site”, it said.
Hertfordshire Constabulary detective sergeant Will Daglish said the burglary was “a very serious crime” and he was “pleased” the men had admitted to their offences.
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“Weight loss drugs must be stored correctly and are dangerous if they are not administered in the right way,” he said.
“By breaking into the fridges storing the Mounjaro drug, their actions posed a serious health risk to the public.”
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It comes after four members of an organised criminal group were sentenced for illegally supplying millions of pounds’ worth of medicines online.
And it follows over two million doses of illegal medicines worth more than £4m being seized in an “intensive” international operation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
