Gosford: Hayden Brindle, Shaylee Cheal face District Court for importing steroids
A couple have faced a sentencing hearing for the first time since pleading guilty to importing steroids and supplying drugs a year ago. But they’re still haggling over the facts, a court has heard.
Central Coast
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A heavily-tattooed man and his blonde girlfriend-come-business partner faced Gosford District Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to importing steroids and the ongoing supply of prohibited drugs.
However despite admitting their guilt, Hayden Brindle, 31, and Shaylee Cheal, 27, continue to dispute the details of their offending with the court hearing they had been unable to agree on a set of “facts” on which to be sentenced.
Cheal confirmed her guilty pleas to importing 50 ampoules of human growth hormone Somatropin, 400 ampoules of the anabolic steroid Drostanolone Propionate and 1900 tablets of the erectile dysfunction drug Tadalafil between October and December 2019.
She also pleaded guilty to knowingly deal with $1800 cash being the proceeds of crime, receiving stolen property and two counts of supplying drugs on an ongoing basis.
Her boyfriend Brindle meanwhile maintained his guilty pleas to more than a dozen offences including importing steroids and human growth hormones, supplying MDMA and cocaine and the ongoing supply of prohibited drugs.
He also pleaded guilty to knowingly deal with the proceeds of crime after police seized $127,000 cash from their Wamberal property.
However the court heard he disputed how much of that money was from the proceeds of crime and how much was legitimately earned through the couple’s carpet laying business.
Similarly Cheal disputed the alleged facts in one of her ongoing supply charges.
Her barrister told the court while she did agree to supply a man named “Arca” with drugs, it was cocaine — not MDMA — and she only agreed to get out of having to talk to him any further.
He said Cheal had no intention of fulfilling the supply arrangement and it was done “against a backdrop of a home invasion”.
Judge Tanya Bright said rather than holding a stand-alone disputed facts hearing, both Brindle and Cheal could take the witness stand at their sentence hearing and she would determine what “weight” to give their evidence.
Their appearance comes just over 12 months since they pleaded guilty to the offences in the Local Court and three years since Brisbane Water Police established Strike Force Oldaker to investigate the importation and supply of steroids on the coast.
As a result of inquiries, several parcels were intercepted by Australian Border Force (ABF) officers at the Sydney Gateway Facility at Clyde which had been addressed to the couple, in various ways, for collection at the Erina Post Office.
They were adjourned to reappear at Gosford District Court again on March 2.
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