Steroid dealers ordered to pay back over £500k
Two men who dealt illegal steroids and laundered their criminal gains have been ordered to hand over their ill-gotten gains.
Lee Ablitt and Christopher Thompson pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to supply drugs and Money laundering and were jailed in 2024.
Now the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division has secured Confiscation Orders against both men forcing them to repay all their available assets. The former gym-owner and doorman were storing the performance-enhancing drugs in self-storage containers in Rhyl, North Wales, as well as other locations across Merseyside and Cheshire.
Ablitt will have to pay over £500k and Thompson over £20k, showing that crime does not pay.
Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said: “They were supplying these dangerous anabolic and androgenic steroids on an industrial scale.
“These Confiscation Orders demonstrate that we will robustly pursue criminals’ ill-gotten gains.
"In the last five years, £478 million has been recovered from CPS obtained Confiscation Orders, ensuring that thousands of convicted criminals cannot profit from their offending. £95 million of that amount has been returned directly to victims by way of compensation.”
Notes to editors
- Lee Ablitt, (DOB: 31/08/1973) formerly of Warrington, was given a Confiscation Order totalling £512,637 he will have three months to pay back the money, or he could face an additional five years and six months in prison
- Christopher Thompson,(DOB: 29/01/1975), of Scot Lane, Wigan, was given a Confiscation Order totalling £20,936 he will have three months to pay back the money, or he could face an additional 12 months in prison
- Where a defendant refuses to pay their Confiscation Order in a timely way, CPS Proceeds of Crime Division can invite the court to impose an additional default sentence on them of up to 14 years' imprisonment. The full debt continues to be in force until it is paid, and interest is charged against it at the civil judgement debt rate, currently 8%.