[TeachMe]

Man jailed after cannabis found at his home

Published date: 13 April 2012 |
Published by: Staff Reporter



A FLINTSHIRE building worker has been jailed after setting up a makeshift cannabis factory at his home.

Paul David Turner, 34, decided to grow his own cannabis so he did not have to come into contact with unsavoury suppliers, but he was so green fingered that production snowballed.

He bought a grow your own kit on the internet and set about converting a bedroom and the attic at his home into a makeshift cannabis factory.

But he was shocked by his own success.

When police knocked on his door there were 50 plants flourishing together with the remnants of many more.

In fact if they had all grown to maturity there was sufficient cannabis to make £59,500 worth of street deals.

Turner, of Mold Road, Connah’s Quay, who had never been in any trouble before, was jailed for 18 months yesterday after he admitted producing cannabis, possessing cannabis with intent to supply, and illegally abstracting electricity between March and September of last year.

Judge Philip Hughes, sitting at Mold Crown Court, said it was pre-planned and sophisticated.

“I accept that what started off as an attempt to provide cannabis for your own use snowballed into something much more serious and significant,” the judge told him.

Turner was not a commercial supplier but he intended to sell from his spare cannabis to friends.

Prosecuting barrister Michael Whitty said police who executed a search warrant at the house on September 19 last year encountered an overwhelming smell of cannabis.

In one bedroom there were 18 plants but there had clearly been a lot more, and there were 32 plants in the attic.

The rooms had reflective wall coverings, extractor fans, together with lighting and ventilation systems.

The cannabis was growing in pots placed in water. Other vegetable matter including dried leaf and stripped stems were found.

The electric meter had been bypassed and it was estimated that £1,600 worth of power had been illegally used.

Paul Abraham, defending, said Turner was a hard-working man who had never been in trouble before.

He had used cannabis, but it got a grip on him and rather than resolve his problems of depression and lethargy, it dragged him further into it.

Turner found himself mixing with drug suppliers and his motive in growing his own was to avoid contact with such people.

Judge Hughes said that for seven months he had grown drugs which potentially had a very high value with the intention to supply, and it was aggravated by the fact
he had stolen electricity to do so.

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