Property developer jailed after setting up cannabis farms 'to beat recession'  

A PROPERTY developer has been jailed after setting up two cannabis factories when his businesses collapsed in the recession.

Detectives discovered 392 flowering cannabis plants growing in an industrial unit at the Gateway Business Park in Brough, which was rented by businessman Nicholas John Richardson.

The remains of another 27 cropped plants were discovered in another room.

Cannabis was also discovered on the top two floors of his six-bedroom home in Goole during another search.

Leeds Crown Court heard the total yield of cannabis and skunk from the two properties was estimated at more than £460,000.

Jailing him for a total of five years and three months, Recorder Judge Peter Collier QC said production at the unit was on an industrial level. "Clearly, you had a very significant role in this," he told Richardson.

The cannabis already cropped at the industrial unit was estimated to be worth £6,960, providing more than a kilogramme of skunk cannabis, while the other plants were a month away from maturity.

The court heard five rooms at the house in Ambleside had been turned over to the production of cannabis, 107 plants were growing, and there were 58 stalks and 93 stems from other plants.

A fingerprint from Richardson's son, Matthew, was found on a power point and he accepted that he had done some watering of the plants in the past.

Richardson was also caught in a VAT fraud where he created invoices to try to reclaim money from the Inland Revenue for two of his six companies, said Simon Clegg, prosecuting.

The property developer, who built houses in the Goole area and commercial properties near Brough, attracted the attention of Customs officers when he changed from paying VAT on his companies in 2009 to trying to reclaim VAT.

Two of his companies, NJ and JM Richardson Partnership and Holiday and Park Homes Leisure Ltd, were asked to submit documents backing up their claims and a visit was made when they were not forthcoming.

He then handed over "a raft" of invoices purporting to be for NJ and JM Richardson for 2010, for which he had received repayment of £56,148, of which 93 per cent were found to be false and created by him.

He had also applied for £29,273 for the other company to which he was not entitled.

Richardson, 50, of Highfield Road, Bubwith, admitted two charges of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of VAT and two of producing cannabis.

His son, Matthew James Richardson, 24, of Low Street, Swinefleet, near Goole, was jailed for 22 months after he admitted production at the house.

Clive Smith, representing Richardson senior, said he was facing ruin and disaster in his businesses and was being treated for testicular cancer in 2009.

He was desperate to try to save something from the "ashes", which was how the fraud occurred.

He had then been made bankrupt but was approached by men from the Huddersfield area about setting up the cannabis farm. His said his personal benefit was minimal and he deeply regretted involving his son.

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk 27/09/2013