A director of a veterinary pharmaceutical plant in Co Cavan yesterday pleaded guilty to selling antibiotics that had not passed a quality control test. The Department of Agriculture took the case against Mr George Crowe (53), a director of Univet, Tullyvin, Co Cavan. He was fined £500 with £1,000 costs.
Giving evidence in Longford District Court, Mr Brian Flaherty, a special investigator with the Department of Agriculture, said he had been surveilling property in Conleeny, Co Longford, when he discovered the black market operation.
He observed a car with a Cavan registration drive up to the residence and saw a man taking a cardboard box from the car and bringing it into the Farrells' residence.
Mr Flaherty later searched the house and found a cardboard box similar to the one he had seen being removed from the car. It contained 100 labelled bottles of a liquid substance which was identified as penicillin. Further questioning revealed the product was obtained from Mr George Crowe, a director of Univet, a pharmaceutical plant in Tullyvin, Co Cavan.
Judge Aidan O'Donnell expressed his concern at the indiscriminate use of this substance.