shop was front for family cannabis farm
A car audio shop run by a father and his son on a busy main road turned out to be hiding a secret when police raided it.
A car audio shop run by a father and his son on a busy main road turned out to be hiding a secret when police raided it.
For while downstairs the premises on Gorton Road, Reddish, Stockport, appeared perfectly respectable, an upstairs flat had been turned into a sophisticated cannabis farm.
Officers went to the address armed with a search warrant after arresting shop owner Richard Horricks who had been caught with a cargo of boxes of plants in the back of his van.
When they arrived at the premises of Stockport Car Audio, they were met by his 61-year old father Lawrence Horricks who told them: "I've been expecting you."
Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court was told that the combined value of cannabis plants seized was up to £109k.
Horricks was cleared of a charge of producing cannabis after a two-day trial, but a jury found him guilty of an alternative charge of assisting his son.
Judge Bernard Lever told him: "I am sure that you knew what was going on in this shop premises."
The court had been told that when police officers arrived at the terraced corner shop on June 9 last year, the smell of cannabis was so strong that they could smell it outside in the street.
Horricks maintained that the flat had been kept locked by his son, and he had known nothing of the drug farm until going to investigate after receiving a telephone call from police telling him his son was under arrest.
When officers arrived at the shop shortly afterwards he led them upstairs saying: "Is this what you're looking for?" He later told officers: "I'll kill him."
Horricks, of Gorton Road, Reddish, was given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
Richard Horricks who pleaded guilty to a charge of production of cannabis, will be sentenced later.
http://menmedia.co.uk 25/07/2012
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Soft Secrets
