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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Farmer let barn be used to grow drugs
The Sentinel Thursday 16 Aug 2012 STRUGGLING dairy farmer Andrew Titterton turned to crime to make money – after allowing his barn to be rented out as a cannabis factory. Police discovered 214 cannabis plants with a potential street value of £96,000 when they raided the barn at Titterton's farm last August. Titterton had lawfully started renting out his barn for £450-a-month from April, 2011 after being hit by falling milk prices. But by the time of the police raid Titterton knew it was being used to cultivate cannabis and did not stop it. Now Titterton, of Lea Croft Hall Farm, Saverley Green, has been handed a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after allowing his barn to be used to produce cannabis. The 39-year-old is also banned from leaving his 200-acre farm between 6pm and 6am for the next six months. Sentencing Titterton at Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Clement Goldstone told him: "Your role may have been a passive role but it was crucial to the success of the operation. "You knew what was going on for about six to eight weeks before the enterprise was busted. "It may be you were led into what you did by sophisticated criminals. You allowed them to arrange for electricity to be supplied to the barn and it was only two months after their factory was up and running that you realised what was going on." Judge Goldstone described father-of-six Titterton as a hard-working farmer who had thrown away his good name and reputation for 'ill-gotten gains'. He added: "You are a lucky man not to be going to prison." The court heard Titterton rented out the barn to two men living in Merseyside and West Lancashire. Police kept the men under surveillance and regularly tracked them travelling to the farm from Liverpool. After raiding the barn they found a sophisticated hydroponic system along with electric fans, ventilation ducts and fertiliser. It was being powered by electricity which was being illegally abstracted. The court heard Titterton – who is helped on the farm by his two oldest teenage sons – has 330 dairy cows. He received just 24.2p a litre for his milk and was making an annual profit of £16,000 from his farm. He works seven days a week, had only ever had one holiday abroad and his only socialising involved a couple of hours on a Saturday in his local pub. Patrick Buckley, mitigating, said: "He has a partner and six children and was constantly struggling to make a living. "Incarceration would be catastrophic for him and his family." http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/Farmer-let-barn-used-grow-drugs/story-16719053-detail/story.html
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