Birmingham company director goes to court accused of selling ‘unsafe’ hand sanitizer during the pandemic

A court has heard corporate directors at a Birmingham company accused of putting ‘unsafe’ hand sanitizer on the market during the coronavirus pandemic.

Big Living Ltd allegedly supplied hundreds of containers of hand gel with less than 30% alcohol, but advertised that they contained 80%, Birmingham Magistrates Court heard.

According to Birmingham Live, it is also alleged that the Digbeth-based company led business standards officials in a ‘wild goose chase’ as they tried to track the product to ensure it was approved. launched.

LR Jeewan Sagu, Rajika Sagu and Robert Hiley leave Birmingham Magistrates Court

Big Living, based in Birchall Street, Digbeth, denies two charges of placing an unsafe product on the market, one count engaging in misleading commercial practice and one count misleading advertising.

Jeewan Sagu, 40, and Sajika Sagu, 36, both from Moseley, are both directors of Big Living, which was liquidated last year and have pleaded not guilty to similar charges.

The pair are also involved in Desktop IT, an IT support company, also based in Digbeth. The company was represented by director Robert Hiley at a hearing on Monday (March 21).

The product label claims the gel ‘kills 99.9% of germs’. But Prosecutor Mark Jackson, representing Birmingham City Council, told the court it ‘won’t kill anything, and certainly won’t kill coronavirus.’

“This case is about the wrong supply of hand sanitizer during the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

‘Consumers have believed it has an alcohol content of 80% when in fact it has an alcohol content of 28%.’

Tests on an early sample of the product showed it to be 27.6% alcohol, not the 80% advertised on the label. Other samples examined during the investigation were found to have around 60%.

Mr Jackson told the court Big Living, which was listed as selling home improvement items and clothing and footwear, had ‘manufactured’ the sanitiser by rebranding under his Chemist Plus brand name. Sagu.

He added that it is not known who manufactured the gel.

The case is being heard at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court

Concerns arose about the product in July 2020 after a consumer purchased the gel on eBay from a wholesaler, who purchased it from Big Living.

Mr Jackson told the court the trading standards had been warned but when they contacted the business Mr Sagu insisted the hand gel was supplied by another wholesaler.

Over the next few months, he said, council officials were ‘misleading’ about where Big Living, run by Mr Sagu, had obtained the sanitiser and to whom they had provided it.

“They’ve got these all over the place and kept it a secret,” he said.

‘They are required to provide urgent information to staff to track where unsafe product has gone.

‘At best the officers were deceived. Worse yet, they are not being completely honest.

“The reality is now the officers don’t know who they sent these to either because they didn’t bother to tell them.”

He added that Jeewan Sagu had provided ‘false information and failed to cooperate with the investigation’, adding that co-defendants Rajika Sagu and ‘Desktop IT’ showed ‘disobedience’ in their roles. director of Big Living.

“This company and its directors have absolute regret over the efforts of these employees to track down an unsafe product that they brought to market during the pandemic,” he said.

‘Officers were distracted left, right and center. “

The trial continued.

Source: | This article originally belonged to Dailymail.co.uk