Cannabis smoker is spared prison to 'do really good things'  

A CANNABIS smoker escaped an immediate prison sentence despite having £65,000 worth of "skunk" in his house.

Tyran Sarkozi was part of a "group" who stole 6.5kg of someone else's cannabis flowering head from a trailer and planned to sell it on themselves.

The large stash of the class B drug was being looked after by 22-year-old Sarkozi when police raided his former home on Stanhope Road, Longwell Green, on February 2.

Yesterday, Bristol Crown Court heard how officers executing the warrant also found that he had been growing 24 plants for his own use.

Prosecuting, Mark Hollier said that the larger haul of harvested drugs was being looked after by Sarkozi, but that Sarkozi and others were intending to sell it on. Recorder Timothy Grice agreed.

Sarkozi, now of Poplar Road, Speedwell, admitted possession with intent to supply, and producing cannabis.

He was also in breach of a suspended sentence for battery outside a nightclub.

Mitigating, Jason Taylor said his client had been a heavy user of cannabis and that when he and others raided the trailer - the location of which was not revealed in court - they did not know exactly what they were going to find.

Mr Taylor said: "They hit, to use the colloquial term, the jackpot.

"Mr Sarkozi used to have a significant cannabis habit, but he has significantly reduced his cannabis use and it is now between a half and two-thirds less than it was."

Mr Taylor said his client had recently been offered a full-time job and was maturing.

Mr Taylor said Sarkozi had settled down with his partner, who was in court to support him yesterday, and her two children.

Trying to persuade the recorder to suspend any custodial sentence he might impose, Mr Taylor added that due to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Sarkozi had not thought through the consequences of what he was getting involved in.

Mr Grice agreed, saying: "I do not think you had thought through the scale of what you were involved in.

"It was a particularly chaotic and poorly-planned enterprise."

He imposed a 21-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, saying: "You are young and I think you are pretty much what might be described as 'at a crossroads'."

He said he feared sending Sarkozi to prison now might result in him "picking up bad habits" and offending more in the future. Mr Grice said: "You are at the point where you could do really good things, and I hope you do."

Wishing Sarkozi good luck, Mr Grice also imposed a four-month curfew, two years' supervision from the probation service and 180 hours' unpaid work.

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk 01/09/2013