THREE fitness club members have been jailed for their role in a huge plot to import steroids and growth hormones from the Far East.

David Newcombe, Kevin Lewis and David Fletcher were recruited by others linked to the Darlington gym to wire money to China and Thailand to buy the drugs.

The trio were paid £50 a time and received an occasional bottle of whisky for transferring the money, usually £3,000 to £4,000, a court heard.

Fletcher’s 60 transactions totalled £191,000 in 18 months, Newcombe was involved for three years and wired £122,000, while Lewis made 19 transfers, amounting to £56,000.

Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday the men were “spokes in the wheel, and not the hub”, and the money was provided by another, un-named, man.

Judge George Moorhouse was told that the import and purchase of the muscle-boosting drugs is not illegal, but the onward sale of them in the UK is against the law.

The trio pleaded guilty to transferring criminal property – knowing or suspecting that the money came from the sales of the products by the plot leaders.

Fletcher, from Middlesbrough, was jailed for three years; Newcombe, from Darlington, received 18 months; and Lewis, also from Darlington, got nine months.

The court heard the men probably never knew one another and were recruited independently.

Dan Cordey, in mitigation, said Lewis, of Teal Road, played a lesser role for 13 months, and wired money only to Thailand for steroids, never for growth hormones.

He described the 46-year-old as naive and stupid and said he became involved after he was assured the plot was legitimate, even though he suspected it might not be.

Mr Cordey said: “He foolishly took the view it was none of his business, and took the stupid risk to make some cash-in-hand.”

John Ellwood, for businessman Fletcher, 38, of Wyke Lane, Nunthorpe, said: “At first, what he did, was not something that he thought was wrong.

“But as time went on and the number of transactions grew, at some stage during that he must have realised that questions should have been asked and he chose not to.”

No mitigation was given on behalf of Newcombe, 41. The court was told that ten boxes of growth hormones were found at his home, in Truman Grove, when he was arrested last year.