Hi °C | Lo °C An internet trader who claimed her herbal remedies could cure cancer and AIDS appeared in court yesterday.
Donna Sims, of Hill Court, Dursley, in Gloucestershire, traded as Herbal High Magick through eBay.
She made extensive claims about her range of herbal remedies from treatment of minor ailments through to life-threatening diseases such as AIDS and cancer.
The products included ‘wild crafted mistletoe herb’, ‘gourmet kiwi fruit jam' and ‘Pau d'Arco herb'.
Advice was also offered on the benefits of taking dandelion, barley grass powder and cocoa butter.
Claims made included: “It is believed that this product may actually destroy certain kinds of cancer cells”, “used to treat cancer”, “the fibre helps to combat cancer”, and “generally used to fight cancer”.
She was prosecuted by Gloucestershire County Council Trading Standards Service after she failed to remove illegal cancer claims from her trading pages on eBay.
Miss Sims appeared before Gloucester Magistrates, who heard that she had been warned by Trading Standards officers that such claims can only be made for licensed medicines, and that claiming that an unlicensed product can treat cancer is in breach of the Cancer Act.
In spite of this warning the illegal claims continued to be advertised over an eight-month period.
Magistrates gave her a two-year conditional discharge and ordered her to pay £1,100 in costs.
