|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: Cannabis farm gardener could be kicked out of UK
Worcester News Wednesday 16 May 2012 Dao Ho was arrested when police raided the basement under the Nisa convenience store in The Tything in March this year. The store – near the magistrates courts and police station – had closed down earlier that week. Police entered the property from the rear off Britannia Road. At least seven officers took part using specialist gear and found the basement protected by a corrugated metal shutter. Inside, they discovered 507 cannabis plants in varying degrees of cultivation aimed at producing a continuous supply, Stephen Davies, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court. Mr Davies said 193 female plants were within eight weeks of harvesting and could have produced more than seven kilograms of cannabis, with three of these crops a year worth a possible total of more than £200,000. He said the estimate of the value was based on how they were sold – if sold in one kilo amounts, they would have fetched between £21,000 and £35,000 but sold at street level for £10 a gram, the total could have been nearer £71,000 each crop. Ho, aged 19, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to being involved in the production of the plants on the basis that he was just the 'gardener'. He had been spending all his time in the basement and had a bolt on the inside of the door and was not being held captive, Mr Davies said. Nicholas Roberts, defending, said Ho arrived in the country in April last year via Russia and a lorry from France. He was in a centre in Glasgow after claiming asylum but left and went to London where he was found a job in a restaurant. The Vietnamese men who gave him the job then asked him to relocate to Worcester. Mr Roberts said Ho, who followed the court proceedings through an interpreter, was told to switch the lights on and off every 12 hours and ensure the plants were watered and looked after but he had no other involvement. He didn't want to do it but he was told that if he worked for 12 months, his asylum application would be successful. Judge Robert Juckes made an order for the destruction of the drugs and equipment. Ho was sentenced to 18 months minus the 65 days he has spent in custody. Any sentence over 12 months is likely to mean he is then automatically deported. http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/9709201.Cannabis_farm_gardener_could_be_kicked_out_of_UK/
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!