Steroid gang finally sentenced after £700,000 Instagram racket busted in Telford seven years ago
A gang involved in a £700,000 racket peddling anabolic steroids on Instagram which was busted in Telford have finally been sentenced with two being jailed for more than seven years later.
Scott Etherington, David Panasiuk, his wife Jessica Panasiuk, Aaron Phipps, Michael North and Malcolm Wheeler were in the dock at Shrewsbury Crown Court to learn their fate after their “sophisticated operation” was rumbled in spring 2018.
The court was told how Etherington was “the boss”, and had a number of "sham" businesses registered, including a clothing company named “Gear Heads” - a slang term for regular steroid users.
He also had a personalised number plate on his luxury Jaguar which roughly spelled out "juicer" - another alternative way to describe a user.
He made payments worth £230,000 to his co-conspirators for their criminal contributions over the course of six years from when the operation began in January 2012 to when it was brought down on May 7, 2018.
Etherington, aged 49, was based in Durham, but David Panasiuk ran the production side from a warehouse at a business park in Telford.
Police busted the warehouse and discovered four pill presses - one of which was in working order - and raw materials for steroids which, once produced, would be worth an estimated £500,000.
Matthew Harris, prosecuting, said the pill press “was used to generate industrial scale amounts of anabolic steroids”.
“It was a sophisticated operation,” he added, saying that the professional packaging of the drugs which included bar and QR codes and use-by dates gave them “an air of legitimacy they shouldn’t have had”.
Police then executed a warrant at the home Panasiuk shares with his wife in Catterick Close, Leegomery, Telford, and discovered 85 vials of steroids as well as £17,000 in cash. Between them, the Panasiuks received payments of £166,000 from Etherington.
Officers found evidence of their “expensive lifestyle”, including luxury watches and £1,000 cash in Jessica Panasiuk’s handbag.
