Bodybuilder jailed for supplying toxic fat-burning pills

A 32-year-old gym owner has been jailed for 37 months for culpably and recklessly supplying a diet pill which can be lethal to humans.

Jamie George is believed to have manufactured up to 10,000 pills a month containing dinitrophenol, or DNP.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) said it is the first conviction for supplying the substance in Scotland.

The bodybuilder, from Denny, previously admitted the offence at Stirling Sheriff Court.

Sheriff Derek Hamilton said George had continued in his activities after he had been told that the pills could have fatal consequences.

He said: "While inquiries were ongoing you were served with a remedial action notice requiring you to cease manufacture, distribution and sale.

"You were well aware of the dangers of DNP. You took no notice of that and continued your trade."

Stirling Sheriff Court was told that DNP is a highly toxic industrial chemical, used in the manufacture of explosives, insecticide, and in photographic developing.

A recent trend has seen bodybuilders use it for weight reduction, "fat burning" and body sculpture, often in the days running up to contests.

James Moncrieff, prosecuting, said that taking it put users at high risk of kidney failure, liver failure, coma, convulsions, and cardiac arrest.

The court heard that in June 2018, officers from Food Standards Scotland, acting on intelligence, raided George's then home in Falkirk.

Mr Moncrieff said: "The floor, walls and contents of the garden shed were all heavily contaminated and stained with a yellow powder."

They found equipment including disposable gloves, a capsule filling machine capable of turning out 100 pills at a time, 10,000 empty capsule shells, and almost £1,500 in cash.

Investigations showed George had been posting supplies to both local customers and others in Asia, Australia and the USA.

He was arrested in October 2018 after a further raid on his home in Denny.

He told police he was aware that DNP was not safe for human consumption, and he was aware of the dangers of taking it, including that the lethal dose is unknown.

There have been over 30 recorded deaths across the UK associated with DNP consumption, two of those in Scotland.

UK government legislation to reclassify DNP as a poison will come into effect in October.

The FSS said it welcomed the conviction.