ONE time Mr Britain and former Lancaster gym operator Samey Hussien was sent to prison for nine months for supplying drugs this week.

He first became involved with anabolic steroids to further his body building ambitions. Preston Crown Court heard how he later developed selling anabolic steroids as a business.

Hussien - who is diagnosed as having a paranoid personality - now wants to tell of his own experience to schools and community centres to warn others.

He sent out the drugs by post for two to four years - sometimes to America. Police seized a large quantity of drugs at five locations in Lancaster - including the Body Science Gym at St George's Quay - and a price list. According to that list the drugs seized would have been worth more than £65,000. Also seized was £1,480 sterling and $3,814 US dollars. Hussien pleaded guilty to five charges of of possessing Class C drugs with intent to supply. Mr Russell Davies, defending, said not all of the drugs seized were Hussien's. They were not all from premises entirely under his control.

Mr Davies added: "In this particular case the anabolic steroids were supplied to a particular market of weight builders and therefore to individuals who had some understanding of the chemistry of the steroids they were purchasing.

"Back in 1988 when Samey Hussien was novice Mr Britain he won a competition and looked around to see the bodies he was competing against. He realised that to get any further in competition he would have to take anabolic steroids."

The judge, Mr Nigel Gilmour QC said the supply business the defendant set up would appear to have brought in a healthy income.

He told him: "Clearly once the drugs left your possession there was no guarantee they would remain in the possession of body builders." A custodial sentence was the only appropriate punishment due to the sheer volume involved and the fact that he knew what he was doing was illegal. The judge ordered that all the cash seized be forfeited and the drugs destroyed.

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