Man set up £250k Lincolnshire cannabis farm to pay off debts
A BUSINESSMAN who admitted growing more than 1,000 cannabis plants with a potential street value of more than £250,000 has been jailed for three years.
A BUSINESSMAN who admitted growing more than 1,000 cannabis plants with a potential street value of more than £250,000 has been jailed for three years.
Sixty-year-old Malcolm Mawer was caught after police executed a search warrant at a property set-up by him in Woodhall Road, Tattershall Thorpe.
Lincoln Crown Court heard officers found 1,018 cannabis plants being grown inside four different rooms when they carried out the raid in March last year.
More than six kilograms of cannabis from a previous grow was also discovered in the building which Mawer insisted was all his own work and the electricity had been bypassed.
Phil Howes, prosecuting, said the cannabis factory was a 'large and sophisticated operation' which used lights and grow bags.
Police estimated the value of the cannabis plants at between £184,000 and £285,000 depending on if it was sold wholesale or at street level.
The value of the cannabis already harvested was estimated at between £40,000 and £62,000.
Mr Howes added: "The total value of the cannabis seized was estimated at between £226,980 and £347,340."
The court heard Mawer was a successful local businessman who had turned to growing cannabis after being declared bankrupt due to the recession.
When questioned by police, Mawer said he had debts of £70,000 and hoped to make £100,000 from the cannabis grow to pay back his friends and family.
Mawer, who had no previous convictions, admitted producing cannabis between January 1, and March, 16 2012.
He also pleaded guilty to a second charge of possessing 6.23 kgs of cannabis with intent to supply following the raid on March, 15, last year.
Passing sentence Judge Sean Morris told Mawer: "This is a real tragedy in the true sense of the word. You have been a good and productive citizen, an excellent father and partner, and I have read many testimonies about you.
"Someone who has worked as you have it is even more surprising you should turn to crime."
http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk 16/04/2013
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