21:19 EDT, 21 July 2021
A former Home and Away actor arrested for involvement in an alleged cocaine syndicate wants bail so that he can attend a rehabilitation facility.
Putu Winchester-Stanton, 44, who found fame as loveable class clown Dennis Klinsmann in the TV drama series Heartbreak High during the late 1990s, is in a maximum-security jail after he and a number of other men were arrested in April and charged with a range of drug crimes.
Mr Winchester-Stanton s defence lawyer John Weller said in Byron Bay Court on Monday that he would be applying for bail for the star once access to the Victory House rehabilitation facility at Tweed Heads on the far north coast of NSW could be organised.
02:53 EDT, 5 July 2021
A soap opera heartthrob has spoken from behind bars for the first time since his drug addiction led to him becoming caught up in an alleged cocaine syndicate.
Putu Winchester-Stanton, 44, is in a maximum-security jail after being arrested with seven others and charged with crimes including supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and knowingly directing the activities of a criminal group.
Winchester-Stanton, from Mullumbimby near Byron Bay on New South Wales far north coast, gained fame from his time playing loveable class clown Dennis Klinsmann in the TV drama series Heartbreak High during the late 1990s.
Heartbreak High star Putu Winchester-Stanton is one of seven men who has been charged with drug offences during an ongoing police investigation in the coastal NSW hotspot Byron Bay.
The former actor, who starred as a surfer named Pongo on
Home and Away and more notably as class clown Dennis on the iconic Heartbreak High, was arrested at a Mullumbimby home last month, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Winchester-Stanton in the credits for Heartbreak High. Source: Netflix
According to NSW Police, in October 2020 officers from the Northern Region North Coast Region Enforcement Squad (RES) launches two separate investigations via strike forces Strike Force Kelly and Strike Force Tulipa to “investigate the supply of cocaine in the Byron Bay, Mullumbimby and Bangalow area.”
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Maintaining a squeaky-clean reputation until the turn of the century, the program has been hit by a series of controversies since the early 2000s.
Flashback! Putu played a surfer named Pogo on the Seven soap, and was one of seven men arrested after police raided homes across the Byron Shire on Thursday, April 22
Putu Winchester-Stanton
News broke on Monday that former Home and Away actor Putu Winchester-Stanton, 44, had been accused of being the mastermind behind an alleged drug syndicate supplying cocaine across Byron Bay, New South Wales
Putu, who played a surfer named Pogo on the show, was one of seven men arrested after police raided homes across the Byron Shire on Thursday, April 22.
02:04 EDT, 11 May 2021
A soap star accused of masterminding a Byron Bay cocaine syndicate once spent time in a Papua New Guinea prison on drug charges after a surfing trip went wrong.
Putu Winchester-Stanton was one of seven men arrested after police raided homes across the New South Wales far north coast on April 22.
The 44-year-old tattooed surfer has remained behind bars since his arrest and was formally refused bail again in Byron Bay Local Court on Monday.
Winchester-Stanton was born in Bali, raised in Bondi and moved to Byron after his big break starring in Heartbreak High came to an end in 1999.