Relief Healthcare fined for selling unapproved beds

A company has been fined more than £10,000 for selling unapproved beds to vulnerable elderly people, a regulator has said.

Relief Healthcare Ltd claimed the beds and massage therapy mattresses could help with a range of conditions including diabetes, broken bones, weight loss and "breaking down poison in the body", Cambridge Magistrates' Court heard.

But there was no clinical evidence to support these claims and the products, which cost thousands of pounds each, were not licensed for sale in the UK.

The company and its managing director, John McConville, pleading guilty to four charges under medical devices regulations 2002 and five charges under consumer protection laws.

The court issued fines totalling £10,250 and ordered the firm to pay £20,000 in costs, the Medicines and Healthcare Product Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said.

The MHRA, which brought the prosecution with Cambridgeshire County Council trading standards, added that sales staff used misleading and unfair sales techniques on a number of vulnerable people.

John Wilkinson, the MHRA's director of medical devices, said: "This company tried to make money by taking advantage of vulnerable elderly people.

"The MHRA is committed to protecting people from unapproved medical devices that could be dangerous or ineffective and we will continue to take action against individuals who put public health at risk."

PA