11/11/2007 00:00:00
UK: Cannabis man sent to jail
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A judge delivered a stern message that people who produce drugs to make
money will be sent to prison, as the latest cannabis farmer caught in a
police crackdown was jailed.
Police found more than a hundred cannabis plants worth thousands of
pounds when they swooped on a farm in Hethersett - and the man who grew
the crop is today beginning a three-month stint behind bars.
Karl Phillips, 29, had grown the 160 plants in the nursery at Church
Farm and was paying just £100 a week in rent, while the illegal drugs
produced there each year could net between £18,000 and £35,000 a year.
Phillips, of Langham Place, Norwich, was sentenced to three months in
jail after admitting being concerned in the production of the Class C
drug on April 14 this year.
Christopher Morgan, in mitigation, told Norwich Crown Court Phillips
smoked cannabis daily and got involved in the farm because he wanted to
raise some money to start up a carpentry business. Mr Morgan added that
Phillips had not been in custody before and did not feel there was a
risk of reoffending.
But Judge Paul Downes who sentenced Phillips, told him: “The message
must go out to those who start up cannabis production for commercial
purposes that they will go straight to prison.”
Throughout this year officers have been on alert for cannabis. In April,
officers seized 500 cannabis plants from a house in Hevingham together
with a hydroponics growing system, and in the same month police also
discovered 270 plants under high powered lamps in a property in Pilling
Park. A raid on a house in Brettingham Avenue in Cringleford in the same
month found a large quantity of the plant.
In February, a police officer sniffed out a cannabis factory in Market
Row, Great Yarmouth, and then in March about 3,000 plants worth more
than £350,000 were discovered at a farm near Attleborough. The Evening
News also reported this July how an off-duty police community support
officer found a factory in Colman Road after fire broke out in a house.
A police spokeswoman urged people to report any such suspicious goings
on where they live.
She said: “The seizure of the cannabis plants from Hethersett would
undoubtedly have made a big dent in local cannabis supply. It was a
great result to shut this particular operation down.
http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=13002
Author:
Evening News: Norwich via UKCIA
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