Cash-ridden UK councils are being forced to flog their wares – selling multi-million pound public assets after being unable to balance their books.

Last week, Birmingham City Council hit headlines following revelations it had become the seventh local authority to become bankrupt after failing to manage its assets.

The Labour-led council revealed in June that it faced an equal pay liability of between £650million and £760million, growing between £5million and £14million a month and now estimated to be more than £1 billion.

Other local authorities are facing a mass of equal pay claims that threaten to tilt their already struggling coffers even further – with 3,000 such claims against Cumberland, Glasgow, Dundee and Fife councils.

The GMB union is also understood to be collecting evidence for further equal pay claims against an additional 20 councils, adding: ‘Everywhere we are looking, we are finding problems.’

In Glasgow, some 8,000 women employed as cleaner and assistants in homecare, schools and nurseries took industrial action before the council agreed to pay £770million in compensation. 

To fund this, the local authority sold off council assets, including Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Museum and Art Galleries, The Guardian reports.

The City Council announced its plans to sell the assets last autumn as part of a drive to raise £270million. 

Political rivals including former Scottish Green MSP Andy Wightman slammed the deal and insisted the council had no right to make such an arrangement, as the like of City Chambers and Kelvingrove Museum were owned by the Common Good Fund and required legal approval.

In November last year, the council confirmed it did not plan to buy the properties back from City Property Glasgow at the end of their lease, the Scottish Daily Express reported. A council official confirmed that they will review the position when the time comes.

Thurrock Council announced plans at the start of the year to raise £90million through asset sales to help fulfil its £470million funding gap.

Acting chief executive Ian Wake stated that the authority had five options to help plug the gap, including raising council tax, asset disposal, revenue savings from rationalisation and transformation, growth and exceptional financial support from the government.

Mark Coxshall, the Tory leader of the council said: ‘At the moment, we are £470million in debt which we can’t cover and that is why we are needing to move for exceptional financial support from the government.

‘These are shocking numbers but the first stage to creating a good plan for recovery is to understand the full extent of the problem.’

In May, Croydon Council announced plans to sell off holdings of more than 20 properties in an attempt to raise £50million during this financial year.

The council has revealed a list of 27 buildings it planned to sell off 2023/24. Among its list of properties to be disposed of were the Colonnades Retail Park and the old New Addington Leisure Centre, and the Cherry Orchard Garden Centre – staffed by volunteers with disabilities.

The portfolio also included the sale of five council houses which were arranged to be sold off in order to clear the way for the expansion of Crystal Palace Football Club’s Selhurst Park stadium.

Many of the sales were for properties the council had acquired as part of a planned investment portfolio. 

These include The Colonnades, which was purchased for £53million in 2018 and the following year, the council bought the Selco builders’ merchants warehouse building the offices of medical supplies trader Alliance Healthcare  for a sum of £14million.

Following the legacy of Northamptonshire County Council, which was disbanded in 2021 after going bankrupt, one of its successors sought to offload some of its inherited assets.

North Northamptonshire Council estimated it saved more than £350,000 by closing down a Knuston Hall, near Rushden, last September after it said it became financially unviable to keep it open.

The Grade II-listed former stately home was used as a conference centre and college  but closed during the Covid pandemic.

It reopened briefly in 2021 before closing again in January 2022.

Subsequent survey found it did not meet legal standards and maintenance work would need to be carried out.

The council’s executive director for finance and performance Janice Gotts said it lost around £372,000 in associated income from the hall but made salary savings of £488,000 and net savings in running costs of £241,000.

The hall and its extensive grounds are on the market for £2million.

Slough Borough Council declared bankruptcy in 2021, owing £760million in borrowed debt. To plug the gap, it announced plans to sell off a portfolio including a cinema, DIY store, supermarket and warehouse.

The former Montem Leisure Centre site -which received received planning permission for 212 homes – was put up for sale in October last year

An application submitted by the council’s company Slough Urban Renewal – a joint enterprise between the council and regeneration company Muse, included affordable homes, ‘iconic buildings’, open spaces, and leisure facilities.

The council cannot embark on with capital projects due to restrictions on spending for essential services while it reduces its debt.

Acquired in the 1930s, the leisure centre was demolished in 2019/20 at the cost of £500,000.

The council has received bids of approximately £13.5million for the site, and also put a former music venue, which hosted The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, up for sale.

In south London, Bromley Council is selling its historic Grade-II listed HQ after getting a £164million ‘maintenance and refurbishment bill’ for properties across the borough. 

The council announced it would be moving from its Civic Centre based at Bishop’s Place, in Stockwell Close, to a new purpose-built site in Churchill Court in December last year. 

The former HQ dates back to 1775. Speaking at the time, council boss Colin Smith said: ‘Whilst leaving our current home is a real wrench and tinged with considerable sadness for those of us who have been there a while, this move is of its time given the well-publicised pressures on local governments’ finances and the opportunities it presents in terms of integrating our services more efficiently.’

The council finalised its purchase of the new Civic Centre HQ last month, with staff now moving into the site.

In north Wales, cash-strapped Conwy County Council is looking to spend £255,000 on a study to sell off its historic Bodlondeb HQ.

The authority’s top cabinet team met this week to discuss plans to flog off the Grade -II listed building and move staff into the £58million Coed Pella offices in Colwyn Bay, reports the Daily Post today. 

Conwy’s leader Councillor Charlie McCoubrey said the council had to spend money to save money.

‘It is absolutely vitally important that we get this right,’ he insisted. ‘This is a huge decision for us both in terms of reducing to one office in Coed Pella but also in maximising the community benefit, the economic benefit, and making sure that this amenity is utilised in Bodlondeb to support the residents in Conwy.’

The move comes after it was revealed Conwy faces a £20million to £30million budget shortfall next year, despite increasing council tax by 9.9 per cent last year amid sweeping cutbacks to services. 

Further to the west, in Liverpool, Wirral Council is preparing to flog off 23 car parks, libraries and some of its building to pay off a multi-million pound debt. 

The local authority last month gave Lambert Smith Hampton £495,000 to help selling off its assets over the next three years. 

It comes after civic chiefs backed controversial measures in July that saw Claremount Specialist Sports College, the site of the new Bebington Town Hall and Bromborough Civic Centre put up for sale. 

Wirral’s move to cutback on buildings has been launched to help the authority pay back a £12million of emergency Government funding it received in 2021 to prevent it from declaring bankruptcy, reports the Wirral Globe. 

The council’s leader Paul Stuart insisted the sales were desperately needed to pay off the loan, which is racking up £600,000 in interest every year. 

Other sites set to be sold include Oaklands Outdoor Centre, Seacombe Library, the Coronation Gardens Cafe, the Price Street car park, Tranmere’s Marine Technology Park, former council offices in Liscard, and properties in Seaview Road, Laird Street, and Manor Road. 

Land at Ditton Lane in Moreton, Bedford Place, and Old Clatterbridge Road in Bebington is also being sold. 

Also in difficulty is neighbouring Sefton Council. The authority last year announced it was reviewing around 200 assets a year, reports the Liverpool Echo.

These assets, made up of land and buildings, ‘surplus assets’ and investment properties total more than £300million in value, many of which are held as a legacy from the merging of previous local authorities into what is now Sefton Council. 

On the south coast, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council is planning to sell off a children’s centre, student accommodation building and toilet block to help it plug a £20million gap in its finances.

While Labour-led Nottingham City Council is also making sweeping cuts to its holdings, with civic bosses agreeing to sale a number of buildings and other assets.

At a meeting in February, it was announced the authority would sell York House, which is home to the popular Rosa’s Thai restaurant – alongside six other sites.  

The council said it will complete a sweeping review of 550 of its assets by the end of the year to determine what else it will get rid of.

Nottingham faces a £32million black hole in its 2023-24 financial budget, with the council having proposed savings totalling £29million. 

Meanwhile, there are fears more councils up and down the country will go bust with one Surrey authority grappling a debt that is 86.9 times its regular income.

The Moody’s investor services research found that Spelthorne in Surrey had debts valued at £1.1billion. 

That was an even worse ratio than nearby Woking, which has already issued a section 114 order – meaning it is effectively bankrupt. 

Astonishingly, the bosses at five cash-strapped councils facing bankruptcy are pocketing a higher wage than Prime Minister Rishi Sunak £167,391 salary. 

Online scammers are using platforms such as TikTok to sell dangerous fake weight-loss drugs to desperate diabetes patients hit by a medication shortage, as England’s prescription watchdog faces further pressure to approve a breakthrough jab.

In trials, a third of type 2 diabetics on the new drug, tirzepatide, shed more than 20 per cent of their body weight after just over a year and saw their blood sugars brought in check. The average person with obesity weighing 16.5 st (105 kg) lost 50 lb (23 kg) in 17 months.

This makes the treatment twice as effective as semaglutide, the injection currently approved for NHS use for type 2 diabetes and, since March, for weight loss alone.

Now an investigation has shown how social media accounts are offering to sell tirzepatide to UK patients, as well as licenced UK medicines, to those struggling to maintain their supply of weight-loss medication. Accounts offered reporters 10mg for as little as £100.

But experts have warned there is no way for patients to ensure what they are buying is the genuine drug. Instead, it could be fake or contain other dangerous chemicals unknown to the user. 

Tirzepatide suppress the appetite, leading to weight loss, and boost the production of insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar – both of which are vital to control type 2 diabetes.

When early results from tirzepatide studies were announced at a medical conference in 2018, Dallas-based diabetes expert Dr Julio Rosenstock said he’d nicknamed semaglutide, sold under brand name Ozempic, as ‘the gorilla’ because it had been the most potent drug of its kind until then. ‘But tirzepatide is really King Kong,’ he added.

The new drug has already been rubber-stamped by US health chiefs. But in June the UK’s prescribing watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said it needed ‘more evidence’ before it would give the drug, also known by brand name Mounjaro, the green light for NHS use.

The decision shocked specialists in diabetes and obesity treatment who agree the treatment, given in weekly self-injections, is highly effective and the side effects are minimal.

In addition, sky-high demand for semaglutide has led to world-wide shortages of the drug, meaning diabetics who have relied on it for years are unable to get hold of it – and experts said having another option to prescribe will help ease this pressure.

The NICE approval committee reconvened at the start of August and will shortly announce an updated decision. NHS England’s diabetes adviser, Professor Partha Kar, who attended the meeting, said he felt tirzepatide should now be given the green light.

‘We have massive stock problems with semaglutide so I feel there is a need for tirzepatide to become available,’ he said. ‘Clinically, in type 2 diabetes, the data looks really strong. In head-to-head trials with semaglutide, it comes out better.

‘I wasn’t at the first committee meeting but the decision not to approve it surprised me. That’s why I went [in August]. The question will be whether it is cost effective and NICE will have to work with [tirzepatide manufacturer] Eli Lilly to agree a price. We are hoping for a positive result this time.’

Last month, pharmaceutical industry insiders spoke to The Mail on Sunday about their fears that some patients, unable to get their usual medication, might resort to buying it from unlicensed online sources and unwittingly end up purchasing counterfeit products.

Fake semaglutide has been seized by regulators in Australia, Ireland, Nigeria, Turkey and the US. In July, the Swiss medicines regulator warned against buying drugs from unreliable sources after several people were admitted to hospital after using bogus weight-loss drugs. In one case, the injector pen packaged as Ozempic had contained powerful insulin medication – if just a little too much is injected, it can be fatal.

However our Government’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has recorded just one incident of counterfeit semaglutide, in May.

Now, a Mail on Sunday investigation has uncovered accounts on the social media app TikTok claiming to be selling tirzepatide in the UK. One directs users to a website where the drug is on sale for between £160 and £350.

It instructs customers to pay via bank transfer or with cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin – a form of digital money. At no point is a prescription mentioned.

Another account simply gives a mobile number and tells users to get in touch via message app Whatsapp. Our reporter did so and was told tirzepatide would be sent in unlabelled vials for ‘around £100 for 10 mg’. All we had to do was say how much we wanted and we’d be given ‘a payment link’.

These, and a number of other TikTok accounts, also sold semaglutide and other weight-loss drugs.

An MHRA spokesman said: ‘The MHRA Criminal Enforcement Unit works to identify those unlawfully trading in medicines and we will use our powers to take enforcement action, including prosecuting those who put your health at risk.

‘Buying any medicinal product from illegally trading online suppliers significantly increases the risk of getting a product which is either falsified or not licensed for use in the UK. Taking such medicines may put your health at risk.’

Semaglutide is the most effective of a class of drugs known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, the first of which were developed a decade ago as a type 2 diabetes treatment. These drugs mimic the GLP-1 hormone in the gut that helps mobilise the release of insulin, which regulates blood sugar. But scientists also found it suppressed appetite and made people feel full when they eat, leading to weight loss.

In a series of studies, semaglutide consistently showed obese patients lost around ten per cent of their weight and kept it off for as long as they continued to use the treatment. This result was achieved even if volunteers didn’t make any other changes, such as eating a special diet or carrying out more exercise.

Semaglutide, under brand name Ozempic, has been offered in the UK for diabetes since 2019 – though doctors have been able to prescribe it ‘off-label’ as a weight-loss aid alone. In March NICE approved it for obese people who wanted to slim down – but since then stocks have been running dry.

The main issue is that Ozempic manufacturer Novo Nordisk is struggling to meet ‘unprecedented demand’ – thanks, at least in part, to dramatic stories of body transformations that have been circulating on social media.

Kim Kardashian was rumoured to have used it to help her fit into one of Marilyn Monroe’s gowns for a red carpet event in May last year, and Twitter boss Elon Musk, 51, claimed he lost almost 30 lb (14 kg) and got ‘fit, ripped and healthy’ thanks to Ozempic.

The resulting stampede of dieters trying to obtain the drug meant diabetics were unable to get their vital treatment.

In July, the MHRA issued an alert, banning doctors from prescribing semaglutide to anyone but those with type 2 diabetes who were already on it. But this newspaper discovered online pharmacies were still willing to sell the jabs for weight loss alone.

Stock issues are unlikely to be resolved until mid-2024, Novo Nordisk confirmed last month.

Tirzepatide is the first of a new class of drugs, combining a GLP-1 receptor agonist (the class of drug which includes semaglutide) with another compound known as a glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptor agonist, which also stimulates insulin production.

Michigan-based obesity expert Dr Spencer Nadolsky, medical director of Weight Watchers and its US-only digital health platform Sequence, has been prescribing the treatment to his diabetes patients since it was approved by US regulator the Food and Drug Administration last year. He said: ‘It’s the most powerful drug of its kind. It results in better blood sugar control and patients are happier because they’ve lost weight and feel great.

‘They say it quiets down the food noise – that unrelenting thinking about food people describe. That really improves quality of life.

‘At the moment it’s only available for diabetes, but patients hear about it on social media and come and ask for it. That’s been a huge part of why these treatments are so popular. If people can’t get it – if their insurer won’t fund it, for instance – then we do see them going online and buying fakes. It’s a big concern.’

Later this year Weight Watchers UK is set to launch a nutritional support programme for patients on new weight-loss drugs. Dr Nadolsky added: ‘If patients aren’t monitored closely they can lose too much weight because they can find they don’t want to eat.

‘We offer a comprehensive diet and exercise programme to minimise muscle loss and make sure they get the right nutrients.’

Dr David Strain, clinical senior lecturer at University of Exeter and honorary consultant, who was involved in the UK trials, said a lack of long-term patient data might be one reason NICE has been reluctant to approve the drug for NHS use.

He said: ‘There is no doubt [tirzepatide] is better than semaglutide at controlling blood sugar and helping patients lose weight, but we know from studies that semaglutide does more than that. Taken for long enough, it reduces fatal and non-fatal heart attacks and strokes.

‘That’s why NICE decided it was cost effective to prescribe the drug widely.

‘We just don’t know yet whether tirzepatide, which does the same thing but uses slightly different chemical pathways, will provide the same knock-on benefits. It probably will, but because it’s brand new we just don’t have enough evidence to say for certain.’

The cost of both semaglutide and tirzepatide is roughly between $1,000 and $1,500 (£793 to £1,190) for a one-month supply of four pens in the US. The NHS pays vastly less for semaglutide – around £73 a month. Semaglutide can be purchased privately in the UK from £175.

How much the NHS will be prepared to pay for tirzepatide is not yet known, however cardiologist Kausik Ray, professor of public health at Imperial College London, who is currently involved in three trials looking at possible heart benefits of the drug, said: ‘This drug gives us something we’ve never had before – a medication that works as well as bariatric [weight-loss] surgery. That’s how effective it is.

‘I am pretty confident NICE will approve it soon and it’ll be available before the end of the year, as tackling diabetes and obesity is a priority for the Government.

‘But it’s likely there will be restrictions. If you have a good result with [a GLP-1 receptor agonist, such as semaglutide] then you’d use that. If that doesn’t get a patient where they need to be, then you could try tirzepatide.’

He added: ‘We have treatments that control cholesterol and blood pressure, but whether patients take them is another matter.

‘The big difference here is that people can see, in the mirror, the benefits of this drug – their clothes fit better, their self-esteem goes up.

‘That’s why there is such a demand. And there are even stronger, more effective drugs on the way.’

Dr Strain agreed: ‘We need to also have a focus on preventing, rather than just treating.

‘We don’t know whether, once you start taking these drugs, you can come off them. It’s likely that this will be a treatment that people will need to be on for life.

‘But there is going to be a massive shift in the management of diabetes and obesity over the next ten years. We could see these drugs as widely prescribed as statins.’

FDA tells 180 stores to stop selling Elf Bar vapes after report showed illegal e-cig device is a best-seller and is poisoning children

By Luke Andrews Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 15:44 EDT, 23 June 2023

NHS doctor who helped to drive strike action has been selling a drug used for skin whitening

• Glutathione, which is used as a skin whitener was described as a ‘dangerous fad’ 
• It may have ‘toxic effects on the liver, kidneys and nervous system’

By Glen Owen and Abul Taher

Updated: 19:39 EDT, 17 June 2023

Mulberry founder Roger Saul is selling his eight-bedroom manor house for £8million.

The 268-acre estate, Abbots Sharpham in Somerset, is just a few miles from Glastonbury, the site of the annual blockbuster music festival.

Alongside the 15th-century grade II listed manor, the estate boasts an indoor swimming pool, two cottages, a tennis court, working flour mill and deer park.

Mr Saul, 72, founded fashion brand Mulberry in 1971 and turned it into a global powerhouse before he was ousted from the company’s board in 2003. 

He also grows and produces cereal, flour, pasta, risotto and milk, which is sold in Waitrose under Mr Saul’s Sharpham Park brand. 

He bought half of the main manor on his estate for £27,000 in 1977, when the other half was occupied by dairy farmers.

The businessman and his wife Monty then acquired the rest of the property and the estate itself in the ensuing decades.

In 1985, they bought one of the farmers’ outbuildings for £2,000 and installed the pool along with a kitchen, veranda and pizza area. 

In 1993, the couple bought more land and planted 4,000 hardwood trees. 

In 2003, after he had left Mulberry, the farmers opted to sell the estate and the rest of the farmhouse to Mr Saul.

The manor boasts six reception rooms, an orangery, farmhouse kitchen, offices, a study and five bathrooms. 

The staircase begins in the entrance hall and leads to a music room with an open stone fireplace, and elm floorboards. 

The room also features a concealed cupboard and secret door leading to a study containing screens linked to the CCTV security system.

The property’s drawing room has 16th century oak beams, wine cupboard and terrace. 

The kitchen meanwhile has cupboards built from a 19th century pine chemist shop and marble and mahogany worktops. There is also a gas hob and converted electric Aga. 

A hidden door in the kitchen’s paneling leads to the great hall. 

The garden includes a croquet lawn and 17th century ‘six eye waggon house’ which boasts a pizza area and kitchen, along with the indoor pool.  

The tycoon began growing spelt bread on his estate after his sister, who was suffering from cancer, recommended it. 

‘I discovered it was the most amazing grain,’ he told The Times. 

‘Back in the Middle Ages Saint Hildegard of Bingen had said it’s good for the mind, body and soul; the Roman army had used it as their marching bread.’

An archaeologist also found an ancient piece of spelt flatbread on Mr Saul’s land, indicating that it had been grown there thousands of years ago by Iron Age Britons. 

Mr Saul also found that walnuts were once grown on the estate, and so planted an organic walnut orchard which has matured enough to become a commercial venture.

He also grows and produces cereal, flour, pasta, risotto and milk, which is sold in Waitrose under Mr Saul’s Sharpham Park brand.

Mr Saul is selling his home with estate agent Carter Jonas. 

The estate is divided up into four lots which can be bought separately. 

The first includes the house along with the pool, gardens, tennis court, outbuildings, the two cottages, stables deer park, cider orchard and meadows, all set in more than 44 acres.

The second boasts the mill, a warehouse, office, agricultural buildings, solar plant and yards. It also includes the walnut and mixed fruit orchard and a mirror carp pond.

The third and fourth lots make up more than 200 acres of arable land and pasture that is all classified as fully organic.  

His business is being sold separately. 

The businessman said he is selling the estate because he is ‘spending 30 hours a week on the garden and farm’ alone, and wants to have more time to tackle wider issues related to the food supply. 

Abbots Sharpham itself dates back to the Bronze Age. The first known reference to it is in a grant by 10th-century King Eadwig, who ruled England from 955 until his death four years later.

Sharpham then spent the next 275 years passing in and out of the hands of the Abbots of Glastonbury. 

In 1191, the much-maligned King John bequeathed the park to the Abbots.

During the reign of King Henry VIII, Abbot Bere, who had served under the King’s father, Henry VII, built a magnificent manor on the site. 

Sharpham was later granted to Sir Edward Seymour, who became Lord Protector to Henry’s son, Edward VI.

Sir Edward Dyer, poet and courtier to Queen Elizabeth I, was born there in 1641. 

Author Henry Fielding, the author of satirical novel Tom Jones, was born at the estate in 1707. 

In the early 19th century, the property was let to the Laver family, who were one of the largest cattle dealers in the west country. 

Renowned geologist Thomas Hawkins also lived there at around the same time. 

In the 1880s, the estate was regarded as one of the finest farms in Somerset.  

A pharmacist and his son ran a secret Breaking Bad-style pharmaceuticals factory from an industrial estate, a court heard.

Allen Valentine, 62, and Roshan Valentine, 39, made at least £3.5 million producing Xanax, Valium and Teva and selling the fake drugs on the dark web.

Detectives began investigating the pair in January 2022 and discovered they spent most of their days with Roshan’s childhood friend Krunal Patel, 40, at the warehouse unit at Acton Business Park in west London.

The company was called Puzzle Logistics Limited and has produced millions of tablets since it was set up in 2016.

It is believed to be the county’s first illegal sedatives factory.

The trio had several accounts on different dark web markets and advertised the sale of Xanax and Diazepam.

Mr Patel was the delivery man and would frequently leave the warehouse with large bags, returning 10 to 15 minutes later without the contents of the bags.

Users would purchase the drugs on the dark web in cryptocurrency.

Mr Patel was arrested near to the warehouse with 15 parcels labelled for posting to addresses across the UK on August 17 last year.

Inside those parcels were fake Xanax and Teva. 

Roshan and Allen Valentine were arrested later that same day.

In the warehouse, police found a secret laboratory containing chemicals, equipment and crates of pills.

The pills were analysed and found to contain Class C drugs from the Benzodiazepine group including Deschloroetizolam, Flubromazepam, Bromazolam and Flualprazolam.

Allen Valentine told the jury he was a doctor and has a string of qualifications in pharmacy.

Detective Constable Alex Hawkins of the Met’s Cyber Crime Unit said: ‘The three men ran a sophisticated, large-scale production of fake pharmaceutical drugs sold on the dark web that appeared to be genuine.

‘Their operation was solely for the greed of those involved bearing no concern for the vulnerabilities of those purchasing these drugs.

‘Some of the drugs contained completely different chemicals from those which should be in the genuine tablets; some of them are extremely dangerous.

‘This is the first seizure of those chemicals in the UK and as such legislation will be amended later this year to include these drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act as Class A substances.

‘Stopping the manufacturing of these drugs has removed a significant risk to the public.

‘We would like to thank pharmaceutical companies Viatris and Teva UK for assisting the Met in our investigation and supporting our prosecution against these dangerous and fraudulent men.

‘I’d urge anyone to seek medical advice and obtain a prescription for medication through a doctor. If you buy from the dark web there is no guarantee what is in the substances, as with this case.’

Mr Patel of Carmalite Road, Harrow, and Roshan Valentine, of Hilliard Road, Northwood, admitted conspiracy to produce controlled drugs of Class C, conspiracy to supply controlled drugs of Class C, possessing a controlled drug of Class C with intent to supply, conspiracy to sell trademarked goods without authorisation, conspiracy to use a registered trademark for labelling or packaging goods without authorisation, possession of articles designed to make unauthorised copies of registered trademarks, and conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property.

Allen Valentine, of Kynaston Wood, Harrow, denied the same offences but was convicted after a trial at Isleworth Crown Court.

They will be sentenced on a date to be fixed determined and face a confiscation hearing.

In the long-running Netflix series Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston plays Walter White, a chemistry teacher who discovers that he has cancer and sets up a meth-making business to repay his medical debts.