Two bodybuilders who helped run a steroid dealing business from a gym where a High Wycombe weightlifter took a fatal dose of a fat-burning drug, have been jailed.

Peter Purkins, 48, and Jason King, 42, were arrested and questioned by police after 28 year-old Sean Cleathero died from the effects of weight-loss chemical DNP in 2012.

They were both cleared of manslaughter after a trial at the Old Bailey but convicted of conspiracy to produce or supply steroids at the Apollo Gym in High Wycombe.

Purkins, of Heather Walk, Hazlemere, ran the gym alongside owner Jamie Chivers, 45, and was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, on Friday.

King, of Hazell Road, Prestwood, was the man who had handed Mr Cleathero the envelope containing the DNP, and has been sentenced to 13 months imprisonment.

Judge Peter Rook QC said: “The jury in this case have found you both guilty of being knowingly involved in a conspiracy to produce and supply anabolic steroids.

“It is quite clear there was a substantial business supplying steroids.”

Mr Cleathero collapsed at home in High Wycombe within hours of taking the drug at the Apollo Gym on October 16, 2012.

The prosecution claimed Purkins and King were both fully aware that the gym was being used as a front to supply DNT and anabolic steroids.

Prosecutor John Price QC said: “Being a member of the Apollo Gym Sean Cleathero knew Jamie Chivers, Peter Purkins and Jason King.

“He did indeed acquire, purchase DNP because he wanted to lose weight.

“The deal by which he obtained it was a commercial one, it was not a charitable transaction, Mr Cleathero paid for it.”

Following his death, Chivers, King and champion powerlifter Laura Hague, 23, were all involved in an attempt to remove evidence of the drug supply business, the court heard.

Mr Price said: “What that meant for Mr Chivers, Mr King and Ms Hague was a determination to conceal the involvement of Apollo Fitness and Precision Laboratories and the circumstances that had led to Sean Cleathero's death and of course other illegal activities for which the gym had been a front and which would likely be discovered by the imminent police investigation.”

Chivers, of Spring Gardens Road, High Wycombe, was also cleared of manslaughter over Mr Cleathero's death, but was jailed for five years for perverting the course of justice and producing and supplying steroids.

Hague, of Orchard Grove, Chalfont St Peter, was convicted of conspiracy to supply steroids and perverting the course of justice and jailed for two years.

Purkins, was jailed for 18 months after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply a Class C drug, anabolic steroids.

King, was jailed for six months for attempting to pervert the course of justice, six months consecutive for conspiracy to produce and supply steroids and one month consecutive for criminal damage at Apollo Gym, making a total of 13 months.