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Mother of Four Helped Operate a Steroid UGL for Her Boyfriend Because She Was Addicted to Love
Stevie Rennie is a single mother of four young children who lives in the Perth suburb of Ascot (Australia). She was also a working woman with two jobs – one as a (legal) real estate agent and another as a (not-so-legal) operator of a clandestine underground laboratory (UGL) that manufactured anabolic steroids.
Rennie managed to help her then-boyfriend Scott Brennand with a crucial part of his illicit steroid operation before and after shuttling her four children – ages 5, 7, 9 and 11 – to school. Prosecutors presented evidence from mobile phone text messaging between Rennie and Brennand that “appear[ed] to show Rennies involvement in purchasing products to produce steroids from China, cultivating customers for the purpose of supplying steroids and assisting with the design of labels and business names”.
Rennie played an important role in the marketing of the illicit UGL steroids. She suggested names for the UGL and recommended “Matrix Labs” as a good one. She deferred to Brennand's preference of “Universal Labs” but recommended a blue logo. Rennie and Brennand were also caught in possession of labels for “Euro Pharma” brand products including the steroids stanozolol (Winstrol), oxandrolone (Anavar), testosterone and the long-acting beta agonist (LABA) clenbuterol.
Prosecutors originally charged Rennie with three counts of trafficking and producing anabolic steroids after she was arrested in 2014on January 6, 2015. She eventually pleaded guilty to a single count of unlawfully producing a dangerous drug (anabolic steroids). Prosecutors agreed to drop the other two charges.
When it came time for sentencing on September 9, 2016, Rennie and her defense attorney Malcolm Harrison knew that she would leave the courtroom a free woman. After all, prosecutors had never considered Rennie to be the “principal offender” in the steroid trafficking enterprise. They accepted that she was merely helping Brennand. Brennand had already been sentenced and he avoided going to prison after receiving a suspended sentence of 2-1/2 years.
Nonetheless, Harrison apparently didn't want to take any chances. He did everything he could to make Justice Martin Burns pity his client. He described the 36-year old Rennie as an older woman who was enamored with a 31-year old younger man. She only became involved in the steroid operation because she was addicted to love.
Rennie was portrayed as a “needy doormat” according to the Courier Mail's account of Harrison defense strategy. Rennie was apparently “pining for [Brennand's] attention on a hourly basis.”
“Everything she did was to try and make Mr Brennand enamoured of her again,” Harrison said.
The defense strategy apparently succeeded because Rennie not only walked out of the courtroom a free woman, Justice Burns didn't even record a conviction against. Rennie only had to pay a $1000 good behavior bond in order to put the sordid steroid experience behind her.
Stevie Rennie is a single mother of four young children who lives in the Perth suburb of Ascot (Australia). She was also a working woman with two jobs – one as a (legal) real estate agent and another as a (not-so-legal) operator of a clandestine underground laboratory (UGL) that manufactured anabolic steroids.
Rennie managed to help her then-boyfriend Scott Brennand with a crucial part of his illicit steroid operation before and after shuttling her four children – ages 5, 7, 9 and 11 – to school. Prosecutors presented evidence from mobile phone text messaging between Rennie and Brennand that “appear[ed] to show Rennies involvement in purchasing products to produce steroids from China, cultivating customers for the purpose of supplying steroids and assisting with the design of labels and business names”.
Rennie played an important role in the marketing of the illicit UGL steroids. She suggested names for the UGL and recommended “Matrix Labs” as a good one. She deferred to Brennand's preference of “Universal Labs” but recommended a blue logo. Rennie and Brennand were also caught in possession of labels for “Euro Pharma” brand products including the steroids stanozolol (Winstrol), oxandrolone (Anavar), testosterone and the long-acting beta agonist (LABA) clenbuterol.
Prosecutors originally charged Rennie with three counts of trafficking and producing anabolic steroids after she was arrested in 2014on January 6, 2015. She eventually pleaded guilty to a single count of unlawfully producing a dangerous drug (anabolic steroids). Prosecutors agreed to drop the other two charges.
When it came time for sentencing on September 9, 2016, Rennie and her defense attorney Malcolm Harrison knew that she would leave the courtroom a free woman. After all, prosecutors had never considered Rennie to be the “principal offender” in the steroid trafficking enterprise. They accepted that she was merely helping Brennand. Brennand had already been sentenced and he avoided going to prison after receiving a suspended sentence of 2-1/2 years.
Nonetheless, Harrison apparently didn't want to take any chances. He did everything he could to make Justice Martin Burns pity his client. He described the 36-year old Rennie as an older woman who was enamored with a 31-year old younger man. She only became involved in the steroid operation because she was addicted to love.
Rennie was portrayed as a “needy doormat” according to the Courier Mail's account of Harrison defense strategy. Rennie was apparently “pining for [Brennand's] attention on a hourly basis.”
“Everything she did was to try and make Mr Brennand enamoured of her again,” Harrison said.
The defense strategy apparently succeeded because Rennie not only walked out of the courtroom a free woman, Justice Burns didn't even record a conviction against. Rennie only had to pay a $1000 good behavior bond in order to put the sordid steroid experience behind her.
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