Personal trainer James Blatch was all too happy to flex his muscles for the camera, posing on one occasion naked except for a santa hat.
But the former Anytime Fitness trainer was dealing vials of steroids out of the Kings Cross gym and consuming a bodybuilding drug himself up to 18 times a day, according to court documents.
![James Blatch was consuming a bodybuilding drug up to 18 times a day.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170603235258im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/h/z/o/w/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwhry3.png/1496331430536.jpg)
Now, a court has heard, Blatch is living in South Australia with his mother, completing a university degree and is subject to regular drug tests.
As part of her bid to save her client from a full-time custodial sentence, Batch's lawyer Michelle Swift gave evidence of the publicity he had been subjected to since he was arrested in 2015.
![James Blatch was sentenced on Thursday.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170603235258im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/h/z/o/x/v/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gwhry3.png/1496331430536.jpg)
"You don't expect me to read all the reddit posts do you?" Judge Peter Berman said, referring to a popular discussion website.
Blatch pleaded guilty in December last year to a raft of charges including supplying a commercial quantity of the body building drug Gamma-Butyrolactone, known as GBL.
He was arrested after he sold vials of steroids - including testosterone, boldenone and nandrolone - on a number of occasions to an undercover cop.
When police raided Blatch's Sutherland home, they found tablets, vials and containers of steroids as well as 1.1 litres of GBL on top of his kitchen stove.
![James Blatch in a festive pose.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170603235258im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/h/z/o/v/8/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gwhry3.png/1496331430536.jpg)
GBL, according to court documents, has mind-altering effects and also promotes fat loss and muscle gain.
Blatch was listed to be sentenced on Thursday. However, Judge Berman said Blatch's claim that he intended to use much of the GBL was incompatible with his pleading guilty to the charge of supplying a commercial quantity of the drug.
The court heard Blatch was expected to give evidence that more than half of the drug was intended for his own use and the rest for distribution to body builders.
"He had just over one kilogram. Why is he pleading guilty to supply a commercial quantity if he is not admitting he was going to supply a commercial quantity?" Judge Berman said.
"I can't sentence him to an offence he is not freely admitting."
An agreed statement of facts between Blatch and the Crown states "the accused had possession of the said GBL at his address primarily for sustaining his own use" but would also supply it to other body builders and clients upon request.
Blatch, according to the facts, had developed an addiction over a number of years and consumed "daily doses of two millilitres about 18 times a day".
The wholesale value of one litre of GBL falls in the range of $2000 to $4000.
The hearing was adjourned and Blatch is now considering withdrawing his pleas.
He is next due before the court in October.