Gym boss who supplied toxic diet pills has sentence cut

Image source, Tim Bugler

A gym owner jailed for supplying a diet pill which can be lethal to humans has had his sentence cut.

Bodybuilder Jamie George is believed to have manufactured up to 10,000 pills a month containing dinitrophenol, or DNP.

George, from Denny near Falkirk, was jailed for 37 months in July in what was the first conviction for supplying the substance in Scotland.

But lawyers for George, 32, appealed the sentence and the courts reduced his sentence to 28 months.

Appeal judge Lord Boyd said the original sentence was excessive.

DNP is a highly toxic industrial chemical, used in the manufacture of explosives, insecticide, and in photographic developing.

A recent trend has seen bodybuilders use it for weight reduction, "fat burning" and body sculpture, often in the days running up to contests.