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From Hearld Sun
Reported by Sam Landsberger
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A VFL star is facing a two-year playing ban for purchasing performance-enhancing drugs he never even received.

Casey Scorpion Wade Lees bought a fat-burning product online from the US in 2010. It was intercepted by Australian Customs, which informed the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.

The product was found to contain an illegal substance, leaving Lees vulnerable to the drug code's "attempted use of a prohibited substance violation".

The standard punishment is a two-year ban from all competitive sport.

Three Australian athletes (cyclist Jules Amos, rugby's Brendan Bunyan and motorist Hayden Stephenson) are now serving 24-month bans for attempted use.

Lees' lawyer Paul Horvath said his client was co-operating with ASADA investigators and maintained he had not been found guilty.

"As far as he's concerned he says: 'Yes, I ordered a product from overseas believing it to be a fat-burning product," Horvath told the Herald Sun.

"He had no idea there was any improper or illegal, in a sense of ASADA, constituents in the product. Wade believed he was purchasing a perfectly legitimate fat-burning supplement."

The Herald Sun believes Lees spent about $180 on the product in an effort to reduce his skinfolds to compete with AFL midfielders playing in the VFL.

He was allowed to play last season and has made a submission to ASADA but his fate is likely to land in the hands of AFL Victoria.

VFL clubs have long bemoaned the lack of drug education to players, with many never being tested.

An AFL club confirmed its players are told to never buy products from overseas for fear of them being contaminated with illegal substances.

Lees finished last season in career-best form with the strong-bodied midfielder shutting down a number of stars.

He handed over his No.25 jumper to Brendan Fevola last year and the pair quickly became mates.

An AFL Victoria spokesman told the Herald Sun: "We are aware. An investigation is under way into prohibited substances. So in order to maintain the integrity of that process, we're not in a position to offer further comment."