Stephen Dank: Essendon supplement scandal figure still wanted in fraud, forgery case but police yet to execute warrant

Sports scientist Stephen Dank, of Essendon supplement scandal fame, has had a warrant out for his arrest for almost five years, but inept police have done no work on the case in years.

Sports scientist Stephen Dank still has a warrant out for his arrest in the Northern Territory and is facing possible extradition. Picture: Mark Stewart

Essendon supplement scandal mastermind Stephen Dank is now one of Australia’s longest running fugitives from the law.

The Herald Sun can reveal a warrant for Dank’s arrest issued by the Northern Territory Local Court almost five years ago remains active, but that the trouble-plagued NT Police force let his case gather dust, taking no action on it in three years.

Dank, 63, was in 2019 charged with a string of offences, including fraud, forgery and causing serious harm.

The serious harm charges were mostly withdrawn in 2021.

The charges stem from a stint of work Dank did at a Darwin “anti-ageing” medical clinic in 2017, less than a year after his Ascot Vale home was targeted in a drive-by shooting perpetrated by members of the Comanchero bikie gang.

It is understood the case against Dank revolves around allegations the sports scientist was falsely put out to be a medical practitioner, and that the treatments he recommended caused serious damage to patients’ long term health.

Stephen Dank is facing fraud and forgery charges. Picture: Mark Stewart

Dank never attended court in person, and the lawyer who had been appearing on his behalf in late 2019 and early 2020 withdrew from the case when Dank stopped paying his legal bills.

An exasperated judge issued the warrant for Dank’s arrest in October 2020.

Dank has never indicated how he would plead.

The clinic’s owner, Dr Satbir Aulakh, is expected to be the key prosecution witness against Dank.

Dr Aulakh is currently subject to long-running restrictions on his medical practice, including bans on him prescribing or administering steroid injections.

Police at Stephen Dank’s home in Ascot Vale in 2016, after it was shot at by members of the Comanchero outlaw bikie gang. Picture: David Crosling

Sports scientist Stephen Dank, outside the “anti-ageing” health clinic in Darwin, where he worked briefly in 2017. Picture: Elise Derwin

When asked this week whether any progress had been made on the Dank investigation, an NT Police spokeswoman said there were “currently no updates to this investigation”.

“A warrant of apprehension for Mr Dank, issued by the Darwin Local Court, remains active,” the spokeswoman said this week.

The extraordinary admission came almost three years after NT Police said extraditing Dank had become a “viable course of action” after state and territory borders reopened following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The long-running legal saga makes Dank one of the longest-running fugitives from the law in Australia.

His years-long failure to attend court means he will almost certainly be refused bail, and locked up in Darwin’s over-crowded and notoriously violent prison when he is finally arrested.

NT Police did not respond to questions about why it had not taken any steps to arrest or extradite Dank, despite having taken similar action in other cases involving far less serious offending.

Since charging Dank, the NT Police and DPP have seen a revolving door of chief commissioners and directors and an exodus of specialist investigators and prosecutors with expertise in complex fraud cases such as that alleged against Dank.

Originally published as Stephen Dank: Essendon supplement scandal figure still wanted in fraud, forgery case but police yet to execute warrant