Dutch chemist jailed for London based fake Cialis lab.

A university worker from west London has been jailed for planning to flood the market with fake sex-enhancing drugs.

Chemist Chistiaan Winkel imported a machine from China and chemicals to make £1.6 million worth of fake Cialis C20 pills.

He pressed some samples using white powder to show a "potential dealer" - but trial runs to make the C20 copies were "sabotaged" by undercover police officers.

Winkel, 32, also offered to produce Ecstasy tablets before being arrested after a police sting, the Old Bailey heard.

Winkel, of Fulham, west London, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud pharmaceutical firm Lilly UK and conspiracy to manufacture Ecstasy. He was jailed for three years and four months.

The judge, Recorder Douglas Day, QC, told him: "You are a highly-intelligent man with great talent. It is a tragedy to find you here."

Dutch national Winkel had quit his job as an organic chemistry lecturer at University College London (UCL) to set up his own chemical import business. Soon after, in November 2009, he made contact with an undercover investigator for Lilly through a website and offered to make the pills for erectile dysfunction.

Richard Milne, prosecuting, said the Cialis drugs were only available on prescription but some people were risking their lives to buy fake ones on the internet for around £1 each.

Legitimate chemicals used in Winkel's business, along with illegal Ecstasy ingredients, were found at the home of Winkel's runner Safa Ba Seidi at a hostel in the grounds of a mosque in Tottenham.

Ba Seidi, 36, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to supply Ecstasy and was jailed for 21 months. Winkel's girlfriend, Yuly Sandoval Mora, 33, of Holloway, north London, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and was given an eight-month sentence suspended for a year.