Men sentenced for cultivating cannabis in Essendon  

The strong smell of cannabis led police to 30kg of the drug with a street value of £84,750 to £127,000 at a house in Essendon.

A tent had been put up in a room in the Glebe Close property and was being used to dry the cannabis, St Albans Crown Court was told.

The court heard on Tuesday (July 22) that the drugs had been stolen from other criminals who were operating a cannabis factory at an unknown location.

When police arrived at the house on January 31 last year, three men ran off.

Joshua Jones, 22, of Beech Hill, Barnet, was grabbed by an officer in the garden.

Jones told the officer: "We have just found it. I have the best lawyer in London. I will get you the sack."

Prosecutor Neil King said the two others, Richard Warner, 22, of Tudor Road, Barnet, and Jack Molloy, 21, of Beech Hill, Barnet, were chased over neighbours' gardens.

Molloy was cornered in a garden and arrested.

Two police dogs - a German Shepherd called Bluey and a Labrador called Davey - tracked Warner to School Lane.

He was found lying on the ground.

Police also arrested Paul Szendielorz, whose house it was.

In April this year he received an eight-month sentence suspended for two years at Northampton Crown Court for stealing from a cannabis factory.

Szendielorz, 30, pleaded guilty to allowing his home to be used for the cultivation of cannabis.

He changed his plea midway through a trial. He had 18 convictions for 32 offences.

Warner, Jones and Molloy pleaded guilty to producing a Class B drug.

Warner and Jones had no previous convictions. Molloy had 9 convictions for 13 offences.

Judge John Plumstead said it was an unusual case in that only those in the dock knew where then drugs had come from.

He said all four came within an inch of going to prison, but said he could suspend the sentence for the time that had past since the drugs were found.

Szendielorz received a six month sentence suspended for two years.

Warner was sentenced to four months suspended for two years and fined £500.

Jones and Molloy received ten months suspended for two years and were each fined £1,000.

http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/News/Men-sentenced-for-cultivating-cannabis-in-Essendon-20140724102423.htm 24/07/2014