Madeleine Campbell: Hampton personal trainer turned heroin addict lands in court

She was fit and fabulous — a popular Hampton personal trainer. But after tragic events she turned to a life of drugs and crime including stealing children’s Christmas gifts.

Madeleine Campbell, 32, has fronted court over a raft of theft and dishonesty charges. Picture: Facebook

A Hampton personal trainer turned heroin addict stole children’s gifts on Christmas Day to fund her habit, a court has heard.

Madeleine Campbell, 32, pleaded guilty to a stack of dishonesty and theft related charges in the Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday following a spree which lasted from October 2019 to November last year.

The court heard Campbell stole credit cards, gifts, handbags, IDs, taxi fares and other items from suburbs including Hampton, Brighton East, Chadstone and St Albans.

In one incident on Christmas Day in 2019, Campbell and a co-accused stole more than $1000 in children’s gifts, phones and a portable speaker from a Honda parked in a Hampton street.

The pair used the victim’s credit card to buy gift cards and cigarettes at nearby petrol stations in the hours after the hit, the court heard.

Campbell also went on a Chadstone shopping spree with more stolen cards in the same year, and entered her home address when making a fraudulent online Culture Kings clothing order in December.

Madeleine Campbell was passionate about health and fitness before falling into a heroin addiction. Picture: Facebook

Police uncovered car keys, loyalty cards and designer sunglasses inside Campbell’s house in January last year, and when they returned for another search in May, Campbell threw a number of driver’s licences and Medicare cards out her window.

Police later uncovered the Culture Kings hats in her bedroom, Magistrate Stephen Lee heard.

Campbell was on bail when she and a co-accused stole a woman’s handbag in St Albans in November last year, and also ran from a taxi after the driver dropped her to her bail check-in at Moorabbin police station.

The court heard the former health and fitness fanatic slipped into a heroin and benzodiazepines addiction in 2016 following the death of her father and a turbulent relationship with her father-in-law.

Campbell’s lawyer said his client was committed to finding work upon her release and had support from her mother and sisters.

She has also kept busy in the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre by staying fit and teaching her fellow inmates different exercises.

“It’s a complicated matrix of drug abuse and committing offences to feed drug habit,” Campbell’s lawyer said.

Campbell, who has spent 65 days in pre-sentence detention, pleaded guilty to 30 charges including theft, deal with proceeds of crime and possess cannabis.

She will return for sentence on February 3.