Police seek extradition to force disgraced sports scientist Stephen Dank to face court in Darwin

NT Police are preparing to extradite disgraced sports scientist and wanted fugitive Stephen Dank from Victoria after his repeated failures to show up at court in Darwin.

• Stephen Dank charged with offences in NT over supplements

NT POLICE are preparing to extradite disgraced sports scientist and wanted fugitive Stephen Dank from Victoria after his repeated failures to show up at court in Darwin.

The one-time mastermind of the Essendon Football Club’s notorious peptide scandal has been on the run since October last year when the Local Court issued a warrant for his arrest.

Dank’s legal troubles started more than 18 months ago after he was charged in 2019 with 20 separate offences including causing serious harm, fraud and forgery, understood to relate to his time working at Darwin’s Ageless Health Clinic two years earlier.

He first faced the Darwin Local Court on December 18, 2019 when he dialled in via video link alongside his then lawyer Raed Rahal.

By February last year, Mr Rahal was gone and the court heard Dank had applied for help from the NT Legal Aid Commission to fund his defence before local lawyer Matt Hubber fronted court on his behalf in May.

Stephen Dank at an NRL match at ANZ Stadium in 2018. Picture: Phil Hillyard

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Mr Hubber told the court he was still making his way through the “huge brief of evidence” against his client while he completed his legal aid application from interstate.

In July last year, Mr Hubber acknowledged Dank was “on thin ice” with the repeated adjournments but was still locked down in Melbourne as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the city.

“He’s only getting an adjournment because of Covid-19 and he’s in lockdown, not because he’s still getting himself together,” judge Greg Cavanagh said at the time.

Despite that warning, another adjournment was granted in August as Melbourne’s second wave of Covid cases prevented Dank from finalising his legal aid application with his accountant, who was also in lockdown.

However Mr Hubber withdrew from the case later that month after Dank’s application was rejected and he represented himself over the phone, telling the court he was appealing the decision.

But he failed to answer his phone at the next appearance date in September and when there was no sign of him again in October, judge John Neill finally lost patience and issued a warrant for his arrest.

A spokesman for NT Police has now confirmed investigators are in the process of having Dank forcibly compelled to face the music.

“NT Police are preparing an application for extradition for the consideration of the Director of Public Prosecutions," he said.

The charges against Dank include unlawfully causing serious harm, recklessly endangering serious harm, forgery, knowingly uttering a forged document and obtaining benefit by deception.

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