THE owner of a Chinese medical centre provided banned drugs which caused a healthy woman to develop cancer, a court heard.

Patrick Thin Wong, 47, of Southchurch Road, Southend, is the owner of the shop where Government office manager Patricia Booth sought treatment for acne.

Miss Booth was a healthy woman in her mid-forties when she was first sold the drug known as Xie Gan Wan, but within six years her kidneys had been “completely destroyed”, jurors at the Old Bailey were told yesterday.

She then developed cancer and underwent a series of operations in hospital, including the removal of her kidneys and urinary tract.

She later had a heart attack, possibly as a result of her condition, and is now on dialysis and awaiting a kidney transplant.

The pills were allegedly supplied to Miss Booth by the Chinese Herbal Medical Centre, in Chelmsford, between February 1997, and November 2002.

Susan Ying Wu, a 48 year-old doctor in Chinese medicine, is now standing trial accused of selling a banned medicinal product.

Thin Wong, 47, is accused of possessing the drugs without medical authorisation.

The drug in question was banned in 1999.

Officers from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency visited the shop on July 24, 2003, and found stocks of the pills made by a company based in Shaftesbury Avenue, central London.

Wu, of King’s Parade, Holland-on-Sea, denies charges of selling prohibited medicinal products and possession of medicinal products without authorisation.

Thin Wong denies charges of possession of medicinal products without authorisation.

The trial continues.