Drugs, then...

So, after the court decided that you needed to be really illegal to be outside the VAT net, the next case on this subject was about drugs. John and Carlo Citrone pleaded guilty to not paying over the VAT on sales of anabolic steroids to athletes. They were given suspended prison sentences for VAT evasion. They appealed to the Court of Appeal, pointing to the ECJ decision in Goodwin & Unstead as showing that they should not have to charge VAT on drugs they were selling illegally (a breach of the Medicines Act 1968). They could be prosecuted for the drugs offences but not the VAT evasion.
The appeal judge ruled that this was not the sort of drug dealing the European Court had been referring to. It was possible to sell anabolic steroids legally, under licence and to the right people for the right purpose. They were not completely illegal like cocaine or heroin. The judge pointed out that it was peculiar to improve the chance of avoiding VAT by exaggerating the illegality of the activity, but that was the law. So their convictions for VAT evasion stood.
Was it just a coincidence that the court chose Lord Justice Pill to give the leading judgment in this case? There are quite a few judges who seem to be named for the job – Judge Rant sat on this particular case with Pill LJ; it seems almost impossible that there is a Lord Justice Judge, who was plain Judge Judge until his elevation to the appeal court; and Lord Justice Laws presumably knows what’s what. Or VAT's VAT.