Philip Fenton has been slapped with a three year training ban

Philip Fenton has been disqualified from holding a trainer's licence for three years at a Turf Club hearing today.

After the Tipperary trainer had been found guilty of possessing anabolic steroids and other banned substances, he was fined €6,000 initially before being ordered to pay an additional €4,200 in costs. Fenton is the first trainer in Ireland to be convicted of this crime and the ban was added to the financial punishment due to the gravity of the offence according to the three-man panel he met at the Turf Club's headquarters today. The Department of Agriculture initially began investigating the multiple Grade One-winning trainer in early 2012 after Department officials found a kilogram of Nitrotain and a 2oml bottle of Ilium Stanabolic at the trainer's yard. The suspension of Fenton's licences will come into effect at midnight on November 28 and he will not be able to attend any Irish race meeting until March 1, 2015.