By Sonya McLean
A husband and wife who were caught with a large haul of anabolic steroids in their family home have been sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Kristina Daunaraviciene and her husband Saulius Daunaravicius of Swiftwood, Garters Lane, Saggart, Co Dublin both pleaded guilty to charges of keeping for supply without a prescription various medicinal products and that they unlawfully placed medicinal products on the market, while not lawfully conducting a retail pharmacy, at their home on September 23, 2022.
Neither have previous convictions. They have three children together while Daunaravicius has a fourth child.
Daunaravicius was jailed for two years while his wife received a two-year suspended sentence.
Alan Smullen, an authorised officer with the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) told Diarmuid Collins BL, prosecuting, that a customs officer examined a package that was addressed to Kristina, bearing her maiden name and found it contained 9,040 tablets and 61 vials, worth an estimated €10,000.
A warrant was secured to search the address on the package and it was executed on September 23, 2022 by Mr Smullen, along with gardaí.
Daunaraviciene had just returned home. She asked could she contact her husband who was working nearby as a security guard and she handed over her phone and PIN number for the phone.
Mr Smullen said he spotted receipts from An Post and seized these as part of the search. During the search, a number of unauthorised medicinal products were found in the fridge and kitchen presses.
Daunaravicius arrived home and accepted responsibility for the products. He claimed they were for his use and that of his friends and informed gardaí that he didn’t have a phone. Further products were recovered in an upstairs bedroom.
Mr Smullen said that in total 78,689 tablets and 5,961 vials were recovered. He said the drugs were anabolic steroids.
He said they are restricted products as they need to be administered under medical supervision as they have potential adverse side effects that can impact the kidneys, nervous system and potentially cause heart attacks, stroke and liver tumours.
Mr Smullen said these steroids are commonly taken by body builders and in the past such users have experienced suden death due to the unauthorised taking of the medication. He said the drugs have also been found to have an impact on a user’s psychiatric health as well as their fertility.
Mr Smullen said a conservative estimate for the value of the items found was €69,000. He explained there was a lot of material found during the search but due to limited resources, HPRA were not in a position to test it all.
John Noonan BL, representing Daunaravicius, said his client was head of security at City West Hotel at the time of the search.
He said he has three children with his co-accused and another child from a previous relationship.
Mr Noonan said his client has “never not worked” having worked previously as a carpenter before he began working in security. He has had an interest in personal fitness since he was a teenager and began to take anabolic steroids when he was 25 years old.
Counsel said his client accepts full responsibility for his role and handed in a reference from his current employer.
Morgan Shelley BL, defending Daunaraviciene, said his client came to Ireland 20 years ago and has worked continuously ever since. She is currently six years in her current job in a technical sales role in a civil engineering and construction company.
Mr Shelley submitted that his client is a hard-working pro-social person and has taken responsibility for the ownership of the drugs along with her husband as she accepts that she permitted the drugs to be kept in her home. She has never been in trouble with the gardaí.
Judge Martin Nolan said Daunaraviciene had been fully co-operative from the start of the investigation and said he has drawn the inference that her involvement was “somewhat lesser than her husband”.
He took into account her plea of guilty, co-operation, lack of criminal record, good work history and family responsibilities before he said he has come to the conclusion that it is highly unlikely that she will re-offend in the future.
Judge Nolan said it would be “unjust” to impose a prison term on Daunaraviciene at this time before he imposed a two-year suspended term on the condition that she keep the peace and be of good behaviour for those two years.
He said in relation to Daunaravicius, officers had uncovered a large quantity of anabolic steroids used in the fitness and body building industry. He described the valuation placed on those drugs as “conservative” given Mr Smullen’s evidence.
“The principal responsibility must fall on him. He was involved in distributing these drugs to third parties to help them in their endeavours in the gym. A lot of people must have been taking advantage of this situation,” Judge Nolan said.
He said such drugs are usually dispensed by pharmacists who undergo years of training and have considerable expertise in the way these drugs are dispensed. “They are dangerous drugs that can have serious effects on the people who take them,” Judge Nolan continued.
He accepted that Daunaravicius had no previous convictions and was unlikely to re-offend but he said he was involved in “a serious way with drugs that he had no entitlement to have or distribute”.
“He is a very accomplished man who has achieved a lot and no doubt contributed to this country. He deserves a custodial sentence to punish him and deter others who might thing of getting involved in this kind of behaviour,” Judge Nolan said before he jailed him for two years.