Bishop guilty of selling £91 ‘cure’ for Covid-19 during the first lockdown

Southwark council has won its case against a faith-healing preacher, for the promotion and sale of an oil mixture which he fraudulently claimed could protect against or cure coronavirus.

Bishop Climate Wiseman – also known as Climate Irungu – was found guilty of one count of fraud, by a jury at Inner London Crown Court on Thursday. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Bishop Climate Wiseman preyed on people when many would have been at their most desperate at the start of the first lockdown .

The day after the stay-at-home order for England was given on March 24, 2020, Southwark council received a complaint that the Kingdom Church in Station Road, Camberwell, was selling a product called ‘Plague Protection Oil’ that was said to protect against or cure coronavirus.

Wiseman sold an assortment of products, which he advertised through various online platforms. This oil cost £91, making it considerably more expensive than other items sold on Wiseman’s blog.

Southwark Trading Standards wrote to Wiseman, asking him to remove all mention of ‘plague/coronavirus prevention’ from his literature and websites and stop making claims about curing coronavirus. They persisted when he didn’t fully comply.

During the same period, the Charity Commission was investigating the church. One of the many organisations that Wiseman was involved with is a registered charity called the Kingdom Church GB.

The Charity Commission became aware of the oil being sold as a coronavirus cure and asked Wiseman to cut all links between the charity and his business, Bishop Climate Ministries.

Despite Wiseman’s claim that the Kingdom Church had no connection to the sale of the oil, this turned out not to be so. Undercover reporters made test purchases at the Kingdom Church.

A Southwark council spokeswoman said: “We are delighted with this guilty result, it shows that no one is above the law. We hope that it will help to protect people from those who work to take their money, for any product that simply can’t do what they say it will.

“Wiseman’s claims preyed on people from the start of the first lockdown, a time when most of us were scared and worried about coronavirus and what the future held.

“Wiseman’s behaviour was little more than exploitative commercial opportunism disguised as an article of faith.”

An expert in public health from Imperial College told the court that Wiseman’s claims about his oil mixture were at best misleading and the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed that in March and April of 2020, no licensed products existed for the treatment of COVID-19.

Pictured top: Bishop Climate Wiseman, 46, speaks to his supporters outside Inner London Crown Court in September 2021, where he was charged with fraud and unfair trading offences over the selling of ‘plague protection kits’ (Picture: PA)