Bodybuilding champ Gary Lewer to be booted from country

A bodybuilding champion and former Mr Universe who was convicted 25 years ago on weapons offences will be deported back to the UK.

Bodybuilding champion Gary Lewer is going to be deported from Australia. Picture: Nicole Garmston

A bodybuilding champion and former Mr Universe has failed in his last ditch attempt to avoid deportation from Australia.

Gary Lewer had mounted a Federal Court challenge after a ruling by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton in 2020 that he be sent back to Britain on character grounds.

Mr Lewer, 66, moved to Australia as a five-year-old but has never taken out citizenship.

The court on Thursday rejected the former Melbourne Mr Universe titleholder’s appeal, ruling his visa cancellation be upheld.

Mr Dutton made his decision based on a dossier of Mr Lewer’s activities provided by Victoria Police, alleging he was of bad character.

A Victoria Police report said the three-time world champion bodybuilder “possesses sound knowledge of police investigation methodology, is extremely disciplined in his criminal conduct to avoid detection and therefore is an extremely difficult suspect to investigate”.

Gary Lewer is a former Melbourne Mr Universe titleholder.

Mr Lewer had argued there was no evidence to support the allegations of “serious criminal conduct and criminal associations” and were instead “based on little more than suspicion and innuendo”.

Mr Lewer was last convicted 25 years ago on weapons offences, for which he received a six-month prison term.

In written reasons, Justice Bernard Murphy said the question was “not whether the Minister erred in attributing weight to the allegations in the Victoria Police reports because of the absence of convictions for that conduct; it is whether Mr Lewer established that there is not a skerrick of evidence to support the impugned findings”.

“In my view he did not establish that,” Justice Murphy ruled.

Mr Lewer had been living in Melbourne until his arrest in March 2020 following the decision made “in the national interest” to cancel his residency visa.

Barrister Chris Oldham said at the time, the arrest of his client came “out of the nowhere”.

The section 501 provisions under which Mr Lewer was detained have been used to expel dozens of outlaw motorcycle gang figures in recent years.

Mr Oldham said Mr Lewer would be an “unintended victim” of the harsh system.

Mr Lewer was being held at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation facility in Maribyrnong while he awaited the Federal Court ruling.

Mr Lewer was ordered to pay Mr Dutton’s legal costs.