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UK: Drugs sentence reduced

Leicester Mercury

Friday 04 May 2012

A man who worked as a "gardener" at cannabis factories in Leicester and Devon, has had his sentence cut by top judges.

Viet Cuolg Duong, 21, of no fixed address, was handed five years' youth detention at Leicester Crown Court in November last year after he admitted being concerned in the supply and production of the class B drug.

However, that was reduced to four years by judges sitting at London's Criminal Appeal Court this week, who said the original term was "excessive".

The court heard Duong was identified through fingerprint and DNA evidence as being involved with running a cannabis factory at a disused warehouse in Parker Drive, off Blackbird Road, Leicester, which was discovered in March, 2010.

The factory contained 2,641 plants – capable of fetching about £703,000 on the street – and it was described in Crown Court as being "very sophisticated" and one of the biggest of its kind ever found in Leicestershire.

He told police his DNA must have been there because he worked as a cleaner at a number of business premises in Leicester.

Mrs Justice Macur said there was not enough evidence to prosecute him at that time and he was released, but was later caught at a second cannabis factory in Devon.

He was found at a house in Gloster Road, Barnstaple – where cannabis plants worth nearly £300,000 were found – when it was raided by police in October, 2010.

However, he fled the scene and wasn't arrested until May the following year. The prosecution accepted he was a "gardener" at both properties.

Duong's lawyers argued his sentence was "too long'', saying the Crown Court judge didn't take enough account of his limited role in the operations, his admissions of guilt, or his youth at the time of the offences.

Allowing the appeal, Mrs Justice Macur said gardeners in cannabis-growing operations were often "vulnerable" to those higher up the chain of command.

The judge, sitting with Lord Justice Pitchford and Judge Paul Batty QC, said: "We take the view that the sentence was excessive and the appropriate sentence is one of four years."

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Drugs-sentence-reduced/story-16000824-detail/story.html

 

 

 

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