14/03/2008 00:00:00
UK: Security Man was using Caravan to Grow Drug
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A man who lives on the site of the now closed National Shire Horse
Centre near Yealmpton grew cannabis plants in a caravan, a Plymouth
court has heard.
Lee Aspin, who was a security official at the former tourist attraction,
lived in one caravan on the site and used another to grow the drug for
his own personal use, magistrates were told.
Police stopped 33-year-old Aspin in his vehicle in a routine check in
Budshead Road, Plymouth, on October 16 last year.
There was a strong smell of cannabis inside the vehicle and they found a
quantity of the drug in a strong 'skunk' variety.
They then searched his address - the two caravans at the National Shire
Horse Centre - and found one contained a 'set-up' for growing the
cannabis plants.
Police claimed Aspin had cultivated 57 plants, including a 'mother
plant' from which cuttings had been taken.
They alleged that if all the plants had matured then they would have had
a street value of more than £2,600.
But the court accepted a claim from Aspin's solicitor Alan Harris that
at least half of the alleged 57 plants were 'shreds' pulled off other
plants and planted in a tray barely a week before.
He said Aspin accepted he had grown the plants on a small scale after
buying a cheap, bottom-of- the-range container, but that he questioned
the police's assessment of the size and value of the plants which were
seized.
Magistrates heard that Aspin had been growing the plants for about eight
months and smoked a small amount of cannabis at night.
Mr Harris said production was small-scale, to satisfy Aspin's own need
for the drug.
He said Aspin had been deeply depressed at one time but had not grown
the cannabis plants for any form of profit.
Aspin pleaded guilty in court to cultivating cannabis, to being in
possession of around £30-worth of cannabis which was found in the
caravan in which he lived, and to being in breach of a conditional
discharge for a conviction of harassment which was imposed in March last
year.
Magistrates ordered Aspin to carry out a total of 250 hours of unpaid
work in the community and to pay £60 court costs.
They also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=13340
Author:
Plymouth Herald via UKCIA
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