Cairns Court: Steven Spilly convicted over huge FNQ steroid haul

A Bondi man handled more than $900,000 in the 20 months he ran a steroid black market website before the whole “bigger than anticipated operation came crushing down”, a Cairns court has heard.

Steven Spilly was sentenced in the Cairns Supreme Court

A Bondi man handled more than $900,000 in the 20 months he ran a steroid black market website before the whole “bigger than anticipated operation came crashing down”, a Cairns court has heard.

Steven Spilly, 49, pleaded guilty to trafficking a dangerous drug between Sydney and Cairns from January 2020 to September 2021 in Cairns Supreme Court this week.

The court heard Mr Spilly ran a website called Aussie Tanks which sold 96 different types of muscle-building and fat burning testosterone steroidal products which were posted to customers who made online orders.

The court heard Mr Spilly began dealing steroids after a car accident which led to lost income from multiple businesses he operated. At the time he developed a health condition which saw him experience below normal testosterone levels.

Justice James Henry described it as an “extremely sophisticated and vigorous operation” which involved setting up two shell companies and PO boxes with fake names.

“Authorities were unable to pin down his exact profits,” Justice Henry said.

“But I think this spiralled into something big, perhaps bigger than you anticipated.”

Aussie Tanks ran in conjunction with Cairns bodybuilder UK citizen Terry Blackmore. He was sentenced in the same court in October where it was found Mr Blackmore had 300 clients receiving encrypted messages on a group chat.

Mr Blackmore pleaded guilty to nine counts of possessing drugs and one count of trafficking. On October 18, 2023 Justice James Henry sentenced Blackmore to five years in prison to be suspended after 15 months.

The Cairns Court House building on Sheridan Street. Picture: Brendan Radke

Justice Henry Aussie Tanks advertising website, “looked very much like a website for Chemist Warehouse”.

“You would shoot the orders to Mr Blackmore. Using tracking numbers, you would sometimes receive orders from him and them send them to customers. You would procure the drug and package it”.

He said the bank transactions involved him sending $650,000 to Mr Blackmore and Mr Blackmore sending $320,000 to him.

He rejected the defence team’s argument that Mr Spilly was intimidated into the trade by Mr Blackmore and that his depressive response to being caught in a “such a criminal enterprise … driven by greed” should count as a mitigating factor against a harsh sentence.

In sentencing Mr Spilly, Justice Henry said if “your lawyers can help you get a lower sentence (your co-accused) … then you should be very grateful”.

But he noted Mr Spilly had made an early plea of guilt and has made significant efforts to rehabilitate himself through psychological therapy.

While noting the difficulty in tracing the ownership of the cash because of frequent transfers between the pair and determining how much of these were profits, Justice Henry said the court was dealing with proceeds of more than $900,000 garnered from the website between January 2020 and September 2021.

Justice Henry sentenced the man to four years nine months, suspended after 12 months.

Mr Spilly – who had not been in custody – looked downward, rubbed his face and handed over his keys, wallet and mobile phone to his solicitor.

Originally published as Cairns Court: Steven Spilly convicted over huge FNQ steroid haul