East Belfast Woman Convicted After Offering Botox Injections From Her Home

A woman from east Belfast has been convicted for possessing illegal cosmetic prescription medicines and offering botox injections from her home.

Barbara Byne, 50, from Orby Road, received a Conditional Discharge for a period of two years plus an offender levy, after pleading guilty to four charges before the court.

The charges concerned her unlawful possession with intent to supply Lidocaine HCL Hydrate Epinephrine Injections, an unauthorised local anaesthetic prescription only medicine and to the online advertisement of a prescription only medicine Botulinum Toxin, more commonly known as botox.

An investigation conducted by the Department of Health's Medicines Regulatory Group led to a search under warrant of her Orby Road address in February 2017. During the search, unauthorised medicinal products of Asian origin were recovered. The investigation also uncovered online advertisements placed by Ms Byne on social media platforms offering the prescription only medicine botoxto the public.

Peter Moore, Senior Medicines Enforcement Officer in the Department of Health said: "Prescription only medicines such as Botox commonly used in cosmetic procedures should only be prescribed by an appropriately trained healthcare professional, such as a doctor, dentist, pharmacist prescriber or nurse prescriber and administration of these medicines should be conducted by a healthcare professional or under their direction.

"My advice to the public is that it is just not worth the risk to step outside the properly regulated sector. Don't be tempted by cut price offers from dubious sources as you cannot be sure exactly what you are getting or the level of qualification or competency of the person supplying it to you."

(CD)