Fake Viagra tycoon must pay ?14.4m

[super jumbe]

A tycoon who made a fortune selling fake Viagra tablets has been ordered to pay back more than ?14 million or face 10 years in jail.

Martin Hickman, 52, lived in a four-bedroom farmhouse in Ashton-Under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, owned a property in Marbella, Spain and paid ?2.5 million for a riverside Chelsea apartment in west London.

Hickman also drove a top-of-the-line Range Rover with a number plate bearing his initials, and a Bentley with a number plate L13 RGE. The former bankrupt businessman funded his luxury lifestyle by selling millions of pounds worth of unlicensed Viagra-like erectile dysfunction drugs over the internet.

Investigators found that his website, MSH World Traders, had a turnover of ?6.1 million in just three years and made him a profit of ?3.4 million.

But some of the pills he was buying from India and selling to clients all over Europe were fakes, made to look like the licensed Viagra product, and others were not legal to sell in the UK. He also sold sex toys, herbal aphrodisiacs and pumps designed to increase penis size.

Hickman, of Lily Lanes, Ashton-under-Lyne, was jailed for two years in 2009, following a criminal investigation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

He was sentenced to a further 22 months in prison in January 2011 for Contempt of Court after he tried to obtain a passport by deception and for selling a property in breach of a court restraint order. He is not currently serving a jail sentence.

A financial investigation by the North West Regional Asset Recovery Team (NWRART) was also launched to get any assets Hickman made through crime.

Hickman tried to cover his track by creating dozens of bank accounts across the globe to launder cash via offshore accounts in Malta, Holland and the Cayman Islands.

But at Southwark Crown Court Hickman was found to have benefited by ?15,427,850.28 from his criminal enterprise.

He was ordered to repay ?14,407,850.28 within six months or face a further 10 years in prison and still be liable for the order.

[skegsagypsy]

Thats a hard one to call !

[super jumbe]

?25 years and no parole he may think twice??.

[cactikid]

will he come up with the goods,i doubt it ,jail will suit him nicely,someone else will come up with the goods that will pleasure him no end

[GastonJ]

Going to be serving hard time if he doesn't

[gc1966]

it says 10 years not 25 which means out in 5 with the 14 mill still there,52 and skint or 57 and rich is a no brainer for me.

[GastonJ]

Says he'll still have to pay it even if he does the time. "He was ordered to repay ?14,407,850.28 within six months or face a further 10 years in prison and still be liable for the order."

I guess he'll be headed out to South America by now