Wellington man illegally sold steroids over social media

Donald D'Ewes is sentenced in the Wellington District Court for selling steroids on social media. Photo / Melissa Nightingale

A Wellington man who sold steroids illegally through social media and courier posted them to buyers has been sentenced to community work.

Donald Paul D'Ewes, 41, has pleaded guilty to 17 counts of selling prescription medications and three of possession.

He appeared in the Wellington District Court today for sentencing, where his lawyer, Mike Antunovic, applied for a discharge without conviction.

The Ngaio man kept about 40 per cent of the proceeds from selling the medicines, and gave the rest to the person who provided them to him, Antunovic said.

He said his client was depressed and anxious at the time of the offending due to having been made redundant. He was using some of the medicines himself.

"He simply made an error of judgement getting himself involved in this in the first place."

The IT worker was "clearly well regarded" as a person and in his field of expertise.

He lost two jobs as a result of being charged, and that was before he had pleaded guilty.

Antunovic applied for a discharge without conviction for D'Ewes, saying any conviction would present "an absolute bar to employment".

"He will not get any employment in his field of expertise if he's convicted."

He said the consequences of a conviction would be out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending.

The police prosecutor said the offending was "calculated". He opposed a discharge without conviction.

Judge Bill Hastings said D'Ewes began selling the steroids, including testosterone and human growth hormone, in September 2017.

"You received orders from customers via social media," the judge said.

"You filled the orders using snaplock bags for the pills and small glass vials for the liquids."

A police search of D'Ewes home uncovered 13,000 pills and 400 vials of liquids in a blue suitcase.

Judge Hastings said the medicines had a street value of $78,000, and that D'Ewes kept about $40,000 of that over the 10 month period of his offending.

D'Ewes created homemade official looking labels to make the packages seem as if they came from a legitimate Japanese company.

He told police a friend he knew from the gym was moving to Australia, so gave him the suitcase of steroids with the agreement he would sell them on the friend's behalf.

He said he approached body builders and weight lifters he knew already used steroids to sell them the products.

Police also carried out two search warrants at the Courier Post depot in Kaiwharawhara, where packages of medicines sent by D'Ewes were seized.

Judge Hastings said IT companies were entitled to know if prospective employees had committed offences, particularly if those offences involved the use of computers and social media.

He sentenced him to 80 hours of community work and six months of supervision, with a condition he attend drug and alcohol counselling.

D'Ewes has no previous convictions.