A MAN who created a secret partitioned-off area of his garage to use to grow cannabis has escaped being jailed despite having a previous drug conviction.
But when Leslie Richards complained about having to carry out unpaid work, a judge warned he had a ‘blunt choice’ between doing the work ‘or I send him to custody today.’
Richards, 58, of Yarningale Road, Willenhall had pleaded guilty to producing cannabis on the basis that it was all for his own use.
That had not been accepted by the prosecution at Warwick Crown Court, who argued that it was a commercial operation, and there was to have been a ‘trial of issue.’
But Judge Anthony Potter said that because of various issues it would not make ‘a material difference’ to the sentence, so he would deal with Richards on the basis that he was growing the cannabis for himself.
He sentenced Richards, who had a previous conviction for conspiring to supply cannabis, to eight months in prison suspended for two years and ordered him to do 120 hours of unpaid work.
Prosecutor Ian Windridge said that in June last year officers from the National Crime Agency were heading to Richards’s home when they spotted him in a Honda car.
He was stopped and spoken to, and in the boot of the car the officers found 15 sapling cannabis plants.
Told that his home was then going to be searched, he volunteered that there were further cannabis plants there.
At the house the officers discovered that part of the garage had been partitioned off with a well-constructed chipboard retaining wall in which there was a partly-concealed door.
On the other side of the partition were 15 mature cannabis plants being grown with the aid of heating, lighting and an air filtration system operated by a timer.
Based on the analysis of one plant, the crop would have produced a total of around 700 grams of flowering heads which, based on valuations given in recent cases, would have been worth up to £7,000 if it was to be sold in street deals.
Richard Baker, defending, said Richards’s wife had severe health problems – and a previous hearing had not been able to go ahead because they were shielding during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Mr Baker said she was due to go into hospital for a major operation, and would require major assistance from Richards for six weeks after that.
Richards complained from the dock when it was indicated he would be ordered to do unpaid work, even though the judge had said it could be delayed while he cared for his wife after she came out of hospital.
And, giving Mr Baker an opportunity to speak to Richards, Judge Potter remarked: “He has a blunt choice. He either assists his wife for six weeks and then does some unpaid work – or I send him to custody today.”
When the hearing resumed, Mr Baker said: “He would like me to point out he has caring responsibilities which have taken over his life.”
Sentencing Richards, Judge Potter told him: “You had made substantial alterations to your garage to enable you potentially to grow large amounts of cannabis.
“It was clearly an enterprise you were intending to continue for some time, and you had made an investment in both time and money.
“Because of the delay that has occurred because of the pandemic, and because of the worry previous hearings caused you because of concern for your wife, I have come to the conclusion that sentencing you on your basis, that you were growing all of this to smoke yourself, is not going to make any difference to the outcome, whatever I may have thought or suspected.
“I have come to the conclusion, particularly because of the impact on your wife if you go to immediate custody, that I can suspend the sentence.”
