Man who grew cannabis in bungalow at Little Hay is jailed  

A BUSINESSMAN who grew cannabis in the garden of his isolated bungalow near Shenstone has been jailed for 20 months.

Police acting on a tip-off went to the home of Keith Payne in Little Hay and found a total of more than 200 plants under cultivation.

A large portion of them were outside in the grounds and some were in the loft of the garage.

Mr Neil Ahuja, prosecuting, said the harvest of cannabis from the garden was put at 4.97 kilos with a further 2.6 kilos from indoors.

Together, the yield would have had a street value of £43,300.

Payne, aged 45, of Manley Wood House, Little Hay admitted cultivating cannabis and possessing the drug.

Recorder Mr Mark Wall QC told him: "I accept you developed your own cannabis habit and out of that grew a commercial enterprise. There were viable plants yielding at least seven kilos and you were selling it in bulk to somebody who was, no doubt, going to distribute it.

"This cannabis enterprise lacked some of the sophistication, although I note there were cuttings being taken to continue the business."

Mr Ahuja said police went to the bungalow, which is in a secluded rural area, on August 15 last year.

Payne arrived home shortly afterwards and admitted immediately he was responsible for the plants.

He said he bought the equipment from a Polish man and he would sell it to one individual only at £400 an ounce.

The money supplemented his income and what he didn't sell, he kept for himself.

Mr Tim Pole, defending, told Stafford Crown Court: "Producing cannabis on such a scale, I accept is a serious matter indeed.

"My client is an individual who was a user of cannabis, who was to a degree naive, who embarked on an enterprise without truly knowing the gravity.

"He has, in effect, planted the cannabis in his garden, exposed to the risk of the elements and not the usual equipment of lighting and abstracting electricity.

"As a result of this offence he has cut all ties with anything cannabis related, he has completely turned his back on the substance."

http://www.lichfieldmercury.co.uk 27/03/2014