Police stop car on M56 after spotting disqualified driver... and rumble £2m plot

A gym owner and doorman's huge £2million steroid plot was uncovered after police stopped a car on the M56 motorway.

Lee Ablitt, from Newton-le-Willows, was stopped on the motorway for being a disqualified driver back in October 2021. Officers searched his car and found a multiple boxes of class C drugs, North Wales Live reports.

Police then searched two storage containers in Rhyl, registered to 51-year-old Ablitt. They uncovered a huge amount of steroid and performance enhancing drugs, as well as £483,968 in cash in a suitcase.

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Detectives were then able to link Ablitt to Christopher Thompson, 49, from Wigan - who had been sending lists of drugs to Ablitt that customers were requesting. The pair were said to have been running a 'sophisticated operation' to sell the steroids, with both now locked up for their roles in the enterprise.

Prosecutor Sion ap Mihangel told Mold Crown Court yesterday (November 14) how the men had stored 'industrial' amounts of steroids across North Wales and the north-west of England. This totalled 1,326,000 steroid tablets and 64,870 millilitres of liquid steroids worth a total of between £1.5m to £2.1m.

The court heard how Ablitt said he started bodybuilding when he was a teenager and started bulking steroids - along with others to spread the cost - and they were then supplied on demand. Robert Kearney, defending him in court, said it was a sad tale and that he had become addicted to steroids. He said Ablitt looked 'physically strong' but he had trouble with diabetes, and body shape and confidence issues.

Keith Harrison, defending for Thompson, said he worked hard with two jobs in the security industry and 'bitterly regrets' getting involved. The judge His Honour Rhys Rowlands said there had been 'industrial' amounts of steroids.

He told the men: "Steroids are a real risk to individuals' health. You were aware of that but in order to make money the two of you carried on this business."

The judge jailed Ablitt, of Hoy Drive, Newton-le-Willows, for five years for conspiracy to supply a controlled Class C drug. Thompson, of Scott Lane, Wigan, was jailed for 33 months for the same offence.

Both men also admitted using, acquiring or possessing criminal property but there were no separate penalties for those offences. Speaking after sentencing, Detective Chris Wynne of North Wales Police's Central Priority Crime Team said: "This was a sophisticated operation, which was conducted over a four year period.

"Evidently the conspiracy was so financially lucrative, that they had more drugs than they could physically sell fast enough. This investigation alone involved over 40 different drugs, and more importantly for users of steroids, some samples which were labelled as containing a specific steroid were found to contain different drugs, which highlights the uncertain and dangerous risk of these illicit products."

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