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Wales: 97 cannabis plants grown 'for own use'
Gareth Hughes Daily Post
Friday 16 Jul 2004 PROSECUTORS came under fire last night over charges brought against a North Wales man found growing 97 cannabis plants. Richard Hinchcliffe was handed a community sentence after admitting cultivating the cannabis and possessing the drug. The 26-year-old turned his bungalow bedroom and loft in Harlech Crescent, Prestatyn, into a sophisticated producing operation - with sealed windows, reflector lamps, extractor fans and trays containing water. Denbighshire Magistrates heard cannabis fetched about UKP40-UKP60 an ounce and, on the defendant's own evidence, the plants would have produced UKP1,600-UKP2,400 worth. The Crown Prosecution Service accepted it was for his own use. After the hearing, Inspector Roly Schwarz said of the charges: "We are surprised that, given the amount of stuff there, it was accepted by the CPS without further investigation on its face value. "We had already started investigations to assess the amount of cannabis likely to be produced by that many plants, but there is no point in pursuing that any further. "We will be contacting the CPS to discuss case preparation matters." Officers acting on information raided the bungalow on May 24, finding 17 mature plants with an average height of three and a half feet and 80 small plants in trays in the loft. Hinchcliffe told police that no-one else was involved in the cultivation and he used all the cannabis himself. "He said he had an alcohol problem and used the drug to control that alcohol problem," said David Blythin, prosecuting. The case was previously adjourned for a pre-sentence report to be prepared. Magistrates chairman Austin Savage said that although they had read the report they were surprised to hear yesterday of the scale of the operation. Hinchcliffe, now living on the Coast Road, Rhyl, was made subject of an 18-month community rehabilitation order. Magistrates ordered that the plants and equipment be forfeited. Mr Savage told him: "All we can say is that but for the fact that it is your first offence there is a strong likelihood that we would have imposed a custodial sentence because the system you used was very sophisticated. You had gone about it in a professional way. "You are a very lucky young man indeed." A Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman said: "We prosecuted the charge put by the police and prepared our case to the evidence they had provided."
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