Six members of illegal steroids gang sentenced

The five men and one woman pleaded guilty to offences in 2020

Six members of an organised criminal group have been sentenced for running a business which supplied illegal anabolic steroids.

West Mercia Police said the five men and one woman were arrested after raids were carried out in Telford in 2018.

Officers uncovered a laboratory for making the Class C drugs in a unit at the Stafford Park industrial estate.

Shrewsbury Crown Court was told the gang used a clothing company as a front for the illegal lab.

The police force said at the same time as the raid on the industrial unit, it had entered a second property in the town, where it found more Class C drugs, believed to be steroids, and £17,565 in cash.

An investigation then found the business has been running since 2012 and importing "raw" steroids from China.

The laboratory was making the drugs in an uncontrolled environment, the police force said, meaning that not all products were sterile or dosed correctly.

Det Sgt Rob Davies said: "Evidence uncovered in this investigation saw that the raw ingredients were left out in the open air in an untidy and unsanitary conditions, including vials being sold that were contaminated with human hairs."

They identified Scott Etherington, 49, from Seaham in County Durham as the leader of the group and said bank statements showed him paying out £230,000 to other members of the gang.

He was found to have a number of businesses registered under his name, including a clothing brand called Gear Heads Clothing Ltd, which the court was told was used as a front for the drug-making business.

The six people, who pleaded guilty to offences in 2020, were sentenced on Monday.

They were:

• Scott Etherington, 49, of Seaham, Co Durham - four years imprisonment for conspiracy to supply class C drugs

• David Panasiuk, 42, from Telford - three years for conspiracy to supply class C drugs

• Aaron Phipps, 40, from Telford - 20 months, suspended for two years for conspiracy to supply class C drugs.

• Michael North, 36, from Telford, two years, suspended for two years for conspiracy to acquire/use/possess criminal property.

• Malcolm Wheeler, 47, from St Austell, Cornwall, two years, suspended for two years for conspiracy to supply class C drugs.

• Jessica Panasiuk, 32, from Telford - 12-month community order for acquiring criminal property