An intern chemist whose celebrity clients have included Ruby Rose and Pia Miller stole weight loss drugs from her employer to use on herself, a court has heard.
Shadi Kazeme, 28, pleaded guilty to theft and attempted theft in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday, after Magistrate Charles Rozencwajg granted her application to keep the case in the lower court, which can sentence offenders to a maximum two years' jail.
Defence counsel Raoul Stransky said that his client, who had not yet been registered as a pharmacist, mainly used the stolen products to help her with her own weight loss, after being diagnosed as clinically obese at 17.
He said a psychologist was treating her for "significant mental health issues".
Mr Rozencwajg said he found it difficult to accept she used all of the drugs on herself: "It's a significant quantity," he said.
Prosecutor Diane Karamicov said Kazeme was responsible for recording medication orders and either posting them to patients or arranging for clients to pick them up in person at South Yarra's Como Compounding Pharmacy.
Her manager discovered she had been stealing in June 2015, Ms Karamicov said.
The manager had asked Kazeme to help her, but she refused to leave a package she had placed on the counter, covering it with her hand and later taping it up and placing an order form on it, the court heard.
The manager later opened the package, which contained human growth hormone, a hormone that encourages skin to tan and injections of a drug used as a weight loss tool.
The recipient named on the order form for the package had not ordered anything from the chemist for more than a year.
Managers checked the chemist's computer system, and found that Kazeme had sent 83 packages with pharmaceuticals between February 2014 and June 2015.
She sent most of them to the address where she and her partner, model Chelsea Butler lived, the court heard, with others sent to people believed to be her friends.
Kazeme was initially charged with stealing more than $80,000-worth of a range of drugs, vitamins, hormone creams and syringes but this has since been withdrawn and replaced with a rolled up charge of theft.
Ms Karamicov said she could not ultimately identify what the stolen drugs were or calculate their value, because some were found in packages labelled as different drugs.
Mr Rozencwajg said if prosecutors could not explain the extent of her crime, it could be treated as less serious or even "minimal."
Mr Stransky said his client was later fired, and has since worked as an Uber driver and started her own hydration vitamin business.
DJs and models such as Pia Miller and Orange is the New Black star Ruby Rose are known to have used Kazeme's iv.meHydration Clinic, which offers intravenous vitamin infusions as an energy boost, detox or hangover cure.
Her former employer, the chemist's owner Nima Alavi, is suing her over the stolen pharmaceuticals in the County Court, and is claiming $285,000 in damages, the court heard.
Mr Alavi surfaced as a key player in the Essendon drugs saga after the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority claimed he provided the drug thymosin to sports scientist Stephen Dank to inject in players.
While Kazeme had passed all of her university exams, Mr Stransky said her application to become a registered chemist had been suspended.
Health authorities would take into account the sentence she received to decide whether she was a "fit and proper person" to become a registered chemist.
Her bail was extended until next Wednesday when her pre-sentence hearing continues.