Two women have been jailed after they set up a lucrative business illegally supplying prescription slimming pills.

Lisa Casey and Tracey Walsh had been employed by Albany Slimming Services, in Lowfield Street, Dartford, before they started peddling phentermine and diethylpropon.

Casey, of Bridge Road, Erith, and Walsh, of North End Road, Erith, admitted possessing and supplying the class C drugs between July 2011 and May last year.

They were each jailed for 18 months after a judge said supplying the pills without the supervision and knowledge of a registered practitioner was "extremely hazardous".

Maidstone Crown Court heard after Casey, 52, and 50-year-old Walsh, left Albany in July 2012 they contacted drug manufacturers who supplied the clinic and sent forged prescriptions to obtain the drugs.

They then sold them by mail order to customers throughout the UK and Ireland without any medical supervision and against government regulations.

Alan Gardner, prosecuting, said Casey told how most of their customers were "travelling girls" who did not want to go to a clinic.

Casey used her elderly and ailing mother's home as a private slimming clinic.

She admitted possessing 7,543 phentermine pills and 3,300 diethylpropon pills.

Walsh said when arrested that she and Casey set up their Alpha Clinic to earn money as they had financial problems and saw an opportunity.

They were aware they were prescription drugs. She said she made about £400 a week from selling them.

Mr Gardner said the profit from more than 100,000 pills going through the business in 10 months was about £35,000. Casey forged the signature of a doctor.

"Both clearly played a leading role," he said. "It was a joint operation buying and selling on a commercial scale. There was an expectation of substantial financial gain."

Passing sentence, Judge Philip Statman said: "Obesity is a subject which attracts considerable public attention. The use of slimming tablets to control weight may not of itself provide an easy fix to a complicated health issue.

"Slimming and losing weight are now the subject of big business and both of you had considerable experience of the slimming clinic, the Albany, prior to the criminal offences.

"It was a joint operation buying and selling on a commercial scale. There was an expectation of substantial financial gain..." - prosecutor Alan Gardner

"You had a clear understanding of how a slimming clinic worked."

The drugs were both habit-forming and addictive, according to an expert.

"The two of you chose to set up your own slimming clinic without any of the safeguards that are required. It is right to observe that customers who came to your business were from all over the UK.

"Neither of you had specific medical training. Neither would you have the knowledge a doctor would have of the side effects those drugs would cause."

The judge said he bore in mind that according to the Quality Care Commission the Albany clinic had been extensively criticised. Casey and Walsh did not receive proper training there.

"On the other side of the coin you could see the profits available to your employer from running this business and you decided to set up a business which would generate equal profit for you," he said.

Judge Statman said he recognised that Walsh was in poor health and she cared for her elderly mother. He was confident that neither woman would offend again.

But there were "rich pickings" to be had with the minimum profit in excess of £30,000, he added.

Senior investigating officer DS Andy Brown said: "Casey and Walsh had set up their clinic with no safeguards or medical supervision.

"The profit available to them was substantial and they progressed with no regard to their customers' healthcare and showed a total disregard to the Home Office regulations in respect of the supply of these prescription drugs."