THE owner of a Cumbrian tattoo business illegally used prescription drugs as he battled to overcome a steroids habit linked to his body building, a court heard.

Kirk Venning, 42, got into trouble after UK Border Force officials intercepted a parcel that had been sent to him from overseas, and found that it contained what a judge said was a “cornucopia” of illicit drugs.

The defendant, recently of Carlisle but with an address at Crookfields, Kendal, admitted two illegal drug importation offences and five charges of illegally possessing mostly prescription only but also cannabis.

But prosecutors accepted that there was no evidence the defendant was ever involved in dealing any of those drugs.

Gerard Rogerson, prosecuting, said the alarm was raised in September, 2021, when UK Border Force officials intercepted a package that had been addressed to the defendant, at that time living in a shed in his mother’s garden in Kendal.

Inside the package investigators found a range of drugs, including the tranquilliser zopiclone, used to treat sleeping problems and Tapentadol, an opioid analgesic.

“The police arrested Mr Venning on October 21 at Kendal Road, Staveley,” said the prosecutor. Officers had stopped the defendant as he drove his Subaru car, which was searched. In it, police found red tablets.

The defendant was carrying £1,600 in cash. A search of Venning’s home uncovered yet more drugs, including the magic mushroom chemical psilocin, and cannabis worth £6,290. The total value of the various drugs was just over £8,000, the court heard.

Mr Rogerson said Venning lived in a garden shed next to his mother’s house but had access to his mother’s property. In a drawer in her bedroom officers found a further £7,290 in cash.

Mr Rogerson said an examination of the defendant’s mobile phone showed that he had been communicating with a dealer of the drugs, who told Venning his stock had been seized by customs officials.

The defendant consequently agreed that his drug “orders” could be delivered directly to his home address. When interviewed, Venning told police he used the Tapentadol for pain relief and to help him sleep.

He said he initially spoke to the supplier to ask advice about coming off steroids and had placed orders over the phone. “The drugs would arrived a couple of days later; he said he’d done that three or four times in the previous year,” said Mr Rogerson.

“He said he also used cannabis, cocaine, Ecstasy, and other drugs on occasions." Venning ran his own tattoo business, earning around £19,000 a year and that was the source of the money police found.

Jamie Adam, for Venning, said the defendant had run a successful family roofing business but his drug use had lead to the break-up of his marriage. “He became a body builder and got hooked on steroids,” said the barrister.

It was that steroid use that prompted him to contact the overseas dealer to get the illegal medication that would help him overcome that addiction. There was no question that he had ever dealt those drugs.

“He is putting his life back together,” said the barrister, saying that Venning wanted help and no longer took the harmful drugs he was using. Recorder Julian Shaw commented that Venning acquired a "veritable cornucopia of chemicals."

He told the defendant: “You managed to get yourself involved in taking and purchasing so many drugs... You didn’t have an easy start in life but you made something of your life and all credit to you for that.

“But sadly as a result of alcohol and too many drugs your life started to fall apart. You became addicted to opioid type pain killers. You found a contact through whom you could acquire those tablets and I am quite satisfied they were all for your personal use.”

The money police seized will be returned to Venning, though most of it will be swallowed up by the fines he was given.

For the drug possession offences, the judge imposed fines of £4,900 and for the two illegal drug importation offences Venning was fined £2,500.  With the addition of costs, the defendant’s debt to the court was £7,740.