Doctor tells of pill questions

Xiao-Zhong Chen

The Auckland heart surgeon charged with selling Telfast for the manufacture of the drug P has told a court he did not even know what methamphetamine was when he started onselling the decongestant tablets.

The Crown has accused Xiao-Zhong Chen of making $250,000 profit in nine months by selling the tablets.

It is alleged the doctor, who earned less than that a year working as a heart surgeon at Auckland Hospital, must have known that kind of profit was too good to be legal.

Chen has admitted buying and onselling the tablets, but he maintains that the decongestants were being shipped to a pharmaceutical company in China.

While giving evidence in the Auckland District Court yesterday, Chen was asked about a news item he had seen on television in January 2004, three months after he started onselling the tablets.

He said the item was about the police bust of an Australian laboratory where precursor substances such as pseudoephedrine were being used to make the illegal drug methamphetamine.

Until this programme Chen said he did not even know about methamphetamine.

He started to question what was happening to the Telfast.

"... I was concerned about if the Chinese company are doing the wrong thing in China, which I didn't really want to happen.

"The purpose for me to help the China company is to want to do something good for China.

"I never wanted to help bad people. That wasn't my concern."

Chen immediately called the Auckland company he was buying the Telfast from and asked business manager Stephen Tree if he had seen the news item.

"Steve said we could not control what they are doing in China ...

"He also told me [about] an inquiry with the Auckland police [who had] no opposition to the deal and he said everything would be okay."

Chen said he also spoke with the Chinese company's New Zealand agent - who he gave the Telfast to on the basis it would be shipped to China.

That agent said the tablets were going to China and that he did not know anything about methamphetamine either.

The Crown has accused Chen of turning a blind eye to what was really going on by not bothering to check where the Telfast was really going or to check if documents from the company were genuine.

Yesterday, the jury heard how the doctor received several documents from the pharmaceutical company, including a customs form declaring the goods in China after they had arrived by ship.

Chen said he had never seen a customs form before but believed it to be genuine due to the information and seal on it.

Under cross-examination, Chen was asked about the $250,000 he made onselling the Telfast.

He said it was more than he earned in a year at Auckland Hospital, but that he was not a greedy man.

He was happy with his $200,000 salary and did not wish to go into private practice, where he could earn more.

"I feel this is already high income for me so I have much satisfied with it.

"I living very simple. I'm not seeking a luxury life," he said.

When asked about buying a $40,000 Mercedes as soon as he started earning money from the Telfast, Chen said his old car had broken down and he needed a reliable vehicle as he was often on call for his work.

The Mercedes was secondhand.

The defence said the fact that Chen banked cash sums and bought the car with the cash showed he was not trying to hide his Telfast earnings.

The trial is expected to finish tomorrow or early next week.