A West Midlands man has been sentenced to five years in prison for the illegal possession and intent to supply prescription medicines worth £2 million.

Kieron Banks, aged 34, was sentenced on June 5 at the Nightingale Court in Wolverhampton for the illegal possession and intent to supply prescription-only medication following investigation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

During 2015, the MHRA was made aware that a website associated with Banks was selling prescription-only medicines illegally. Supported by the West Midlands Police, Banks was arrested at his home in 2016, where he was found to be in possession of over 23,000 sleeping pills, including zopiclone, zolpidem and zolpidem tartrate.

During the arrest digital devices and financial documents were seized which showed that bank accounts belonging to Banks had received more than £2m from the sale of these medications.

Packaging was found that originated from a pharmacy manager, David Ihenagwa, who was sentenced to six years in prison at Croydon Crown Court in January 2020. He was convicted for offences of supplying class B and class C controlled drugs, using his mother’s east London pharmacy, where he worked as company secretary, to procure the drugs. 

The Crown Prosecution Service brought charges against Banks, who was found guilty on 27 January 2023 following a trial in Wolverhampton.

Banks was also sentenced with co-defendant, Anita Rama, who was sentenced to 12 months suspended for 18 months, 60 hours unpaid work and 15 hours of rehabilitation activities on separate charges for the illegal supply and sale of prescription medication valued at £184,000, including diazepam for anxiety, zopiclone sleeping pills and erectile dysfunction meds sildenafil, tadalafil and dapoxetine.