Convicted Hull cannabis grower Dave Waller jailed after cultivating new skunk crop

SECOND CONVICTION: Dave Waller outside Hull Crown Court.

A CONVICTED cannabis grower has been jailed for producing a new crop while still serving a sentence for his earlier plants.

But Dave Waller, 41, was found not guilty of acquiring criminal property after a jury found that almost £1,500 cash he was carrying when arrested was not linked to crime.

Waller was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, when sentenced at Hull Crown Court on May 25, 2012, for production of cannabis, which he admitted.

Before that sentence expired, he was nurturing a new crop of skunk cannabis at his home at Rosedale Villas in Rosmead Street, east Hull, while also having a "controlling interest" in a "very similar" crop at his then girlfriend's house in Jalland Street, also in east Hull.

He denied production of cannabis but was convicted by a jury after a two-day trial at the same court and sentenced to a total of 12 months in prison.

Waller was arrested just before 3am on October 6 last year following reports of a disturbance in Denaby Court, east Hull.

He was carrying £1,455 in cash, which he claimed was from a £2,500 inheritance from his grandmother.

When police searched his home, they found four mature cannabis plants that had reached a height of 5ft.

A sample was taken, which was found to be skunk cannabis, and the potential total yield of 180g was estimated to have a street value of £1,028.

The plants were growing in a specialist grow tent, which had not been seized by police during the initial raid on the property two years earlier, Waller said.

The growing operation also featured lights, heating, and timers, and Waller's fingerprints were found on some of the items.

He claimed, however, that the plants belonged to a "friend of a friend" he had met in a pub.

Waller said he was not living at Rosedale Villas at the time as it was being renovated, and the man had asked if he could store some "tools" there, paying him £25 a week rent.

Waller claimed he "discovered" the plants when he went to collect his mail the week before he was arrested.

Asked why he refused to name the man, Waller said he would get in trouble "with all my mates, basically".

Police also searched the property in Jalland Street and found four plants growing under similar conditions in the garden shed.

Waller's then girlfriend, Michelle Snowley, was given a caution for cannabis production.

http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/ 12/06/2014