A George Town mini-mart proprietor faced court Monday over allegations he illegally sold pharmaceutical products from his shop.
Glen Stephen Hydes, 52, the proprietor of Yulannis Mini Mart on Shedden Road, was convicted on three counts of retail sale or supply of a pharmacy medicine and one count of conducting the business of a retail pharmacy without being a registered pharmacist.
Magistrate Nova Hall fined Hydes $1,000, leaving six other charges on file.
Crown Counsel Richard Barton told the Summary Court that police had attended Hydes’ shop on 23 September, 2007, carrying out what they had dubbed ‘operation Mad Ants’, as a result of surveillance and information they had received.
There, they recovered substances from behind the counter that were later identified as controlled pharmaceutical products. The drugs included two types of antibiotics, an anti-malarial treatment, a type of minor tranquilizer and a drug commonly used to treat stomach ulcers.
Upon being cautioned by officers, Hydes had said ‘I sell these tablets to anyone that has a sore throat,’ Mr. Barton told the court. During a later police interview Hydes admitted selling most of the items over the counter, he said.
Defence Attorney Neville Levy said his client – a Honduran native that has lived in Cayman for 29 years – was used to the items being freely sold in his homeland and had no idea he was breaking the law in Cayman.
Hydes had simply been trying to help out certain older people in the community that had asked him for the medicines, he said.
Mr. Levy pointed out police had only recovered a small amount of the pharmaceuticals, and asked that the judge be lenient in sentencing. He noted it was Hydes’ first run-in with the law and offered his client’s apologies to the court.
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