Camberwell’s Bishop Climate has received a one-year jail sentence, suspended for two years, after the News revealed he was flogging coronavirus ‘plague protection kits’.
Climate Wiseman, of Kingdom Church on Camberwell Station Road, told people they could ‘drop dead’ if they didn’t buy the £91 mixtures consisting of oil and red string.
On Monday, February 6, Inner London Crown Court also ordered him to do 160 hours of unpaid community service and pay £60,072 in court costs.
After this paper broke the story on March 31, 2020, BBC began its own investigation. Their secret phone recordings and testimony were used as evidence in court to secure Wiseman’s conviction.
Astonishingly, during the trial Wiseman testified that his kits, made from cedar wood, hyssop oil and olive oil, had cured at least ten people who had the virus.
According to national media, some ten witnesses from his congregation, including nurses, said they were cured or prevented from getting covid-19 after using the oil by steam inhalation or rubbing it on their skin.
The self-styled prophet had denied fraud and two alternative counts under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.
In court, Wiseman’s defence argued he should be free to practice his religion and that he hadn’t been “dishonest” or “acting in a deceitful way”.
Camberwell Bishop’s fake Covid protection kits: How the preacher was convicted of fraud
Defending her client, Nargees Choudhary also said he was not an “anti-vaxxer”, demonstrated by his double vaccination status.
During the media storm that followed the story, Wiseman convinced his congregation that news outlets were the “antichrist” launching a “smear campaign”.
In a YouTube video conference entitled ‘Update From Prophet Climate About The Evil Accusation Going Around On Media’ he warned followers to ignore stories about him.
“It’s a smear campaign that’s been run by not any other than the secular, I’m talking about the secular movement … people that hate God,” he said.
At his trial, demonstrators wearing matching red t-shirts held banners and placards declaring: “Southwark Labour councillors are anti-christ and faith haters”, ‘Bishop Climate is the true prophet”, “we need freedom of faith”, and “there is healing power in divine cleansing oil”.
They blew whistles, while one member climbed on top of a phone box and led chants through a megaphone of “freedom” and “leave us alone”.
Following his conviction in December, Southwark Council said Wiseman “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”.
“We are delighted with this guilty result, it shows that no one is above the law,” it added.
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