A Ballina man has been sentenced to three months' imprisonment and fined £250 plus £750 expenses for selling illegal animal remedies in the form of penicillin. At Crossmolina District Court, Liam Cawley (31), of Rake Street, Castlehill, Ballina, managing director of Cawleys Ltd, an agricultural and hardware store, was said to have received between £50,000 and £60,000 from the sale of penicillin over a two-year period between 1995 and 1997.
Mr Eanna Mulloy, representing the Department of Agriculture and Food, said the incident arose from the sale of animal products which had been rejected by Leo Laboratories in Dublin, but which subsequently went missing from the company warehouse.
In a statement, Cawley, a married man with two children, said he obtained the penicillin through a man from Dublin to whom he had spoken in his pub. "He told me he worked in Leo Laboratories and that he could supply me with penicillin for animals. I saw this as an opportunity to stock penicillin on a regular basis even though I knew it was against the regulations," said Cawley.
Mr Brian Flaherty, veterinary surgeon with the Department of Agriculture, said Cawley had been selling a product that was labelled inaccurately and was ineffective in quality, efficacy and safety. Penicillin at any time was poisonous, but in this case one could not know the effects the substance would have, either on cattle or the human food chain, because it had failed quality control, he said.
Judge Daniel Shields rejected all pleas to suspend the prison sentence, describing Cawley's behaviour as "reckless disregard for the safety of animals and the health and safety of his neighbours and the people in the area".