Janson Limited of East Dulwich, and its Directors Riyaz and Alimohamed Janmohamed, were fined a total of £25,000 and ordered to pay costs of £15,228 for supplying skin lighteners containing the banned ingredient hydroquinone.
During a two day trial Tower Bridge Magistrates Court heard how Trading Standards Officers, assisted by the East Dulwich Safer Neighbourhoods Team, had raided the company's warehouse in September 2007. This followed complaints from other trading standards authorities that the company was supplying retailers with banned products.
A search resulted in the seizure of some 1800 products labelled as containing the dangerous bleaching agent hydroquinone. Analysis of samples showed around 570 of them actually contained the ingredient. Hydroquinone has been prohibited from use in cosmetic skin lighteners since 2001.
A subsequent investigation showed some of the batch numbers of the seized goods matched batch numbers of products seized from Peckham retailers earlier in 2007 - retailers already successfully prosecuted by the council. Company invoice records confirmed these retailers were customers of Janson’s.
All three defendants had pleaded not guilty to the charges but the court held the goods were in the company's possession for the purposes of supply and there was no effective system in place to check goods being supplied were legal. The company said it has now introduced safeguards to avoid further offences.
December 2008