Judgment reserved in Statutory Committee appeal
Judgment has been reserved in a High Court appeal by pharmacists Christopher and Jane Chanin, of Whinmoor Close, Prenton, Merseyside, against a Royal Pharmaceutical Society Statutory Committee order that they should be struck from the Register (PJ, 26 February, p252).
The Chanins, who worked from premises in Bebbington and Birkenhead had
conducted a campaign of threats and abuse against pharmaceutical wholesaler
UniChem after it called in receivers to recover loans made to the couple.
Counsel for the Chanins, Timothy Higginson, argued that the striking-off
order was disproportionate and that the Society had failed to consider
alternative punishments.
The Chanins were of previously unblemished character, he said. They had
a high reputation locally and had done nothing to offend or endanger
the public.
Mr Higginson also said that the Society had failed to take into account
the influence a business associate had over the Chanins. And he added
the pair were sorry for what they had done and had had their livelihood
taken away from them.
Alison Foster, QC, for the Society, said the Chanins had been offensive
and threatening and that the case should be viewed very seriously. The
couple had created a website that resembled UniChem’s and put a
number of untrue allegations about various members of staff on it.
She added that the Chanins’ campaign against the company was launched
in April 2002 after there were problems with an £850,000 loan given
to them by UniChem.
Mrs Foster said that as well as running the website they wrote a number
of threatening letters. They contained references to the grim reaper,
as well as warlike and death orientated mentions of Exocets and the Vietcong.
Reserving judgment, Mr Justice Newman warned the Chanins that their punishment
may have been appropriate. |
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