A Wicklow-based vet has been fined €40,000 and received two suspended sentences for offences relating to the sale of prescription-only medicines for animals not under his care.
Gary Adams, a vet who runs a practice on Main Street, Carnew, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to more than 30 sample charges at Gorey District Court, The Irish Times reports.
Inspectors from the Department of Agriculture’s special investigations unit, visited Adams’s premises in 2013 and found documents which indicated that he was supplying prescription-only medicines to people in locations as far away as Limerick, West Cork, Dundalk, Meath, Tipperary and Longford.
The Department found that farms had medicines prescribed to them when it was clear the vet had not visited them.
The court heard that Mr Adams’s biggest customer in this enterprise, a buyers’ group known as Balfarm Ltd, had paid Mr Adams €125,000 for animal remedies between February 2011 and July 2013.
Mr Adams pleaded guilty to a range of charges including providing prescription-only medicines to animals not under his care; selling the medicines without labels; forging entries in animal remedy records; and selling medicines to another veterinary surgeon without a wholesale licence, The Irish Times reports.
Mr Adams was fined €40,000 and received two six-month suspended sentences.
