Cannabis grown to pay mortgage
A WOMAN who grew cannabis so she could pay her mortgage has been jailed for 15 months.
Maria Hughes, aged 39, was arrested on August 24 last year after police searched her home in Sandhurst Avenue, Meir, and found a total of 33 cannabis plants and nine cannabis plant seedlings.
The plants had an estimated yield of 5.2 kilograms and a street value of £29,700, or £15,500 if sold wholesale.
David Bennett, prosecuting, told Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court yesterday that when police handed a copy of the search warrant to Hughes she pointed at plants in her living room and said: "I am growing it to pay my mortgage." She then indicated there were more plants upstairs.
Officers also recovered £260 cash, a small amount of cannabis resin, worth £142, and 115.68 grams of amphetamine, which had a potential street value of £926.
In her interview, Hughes accepted growing the plants to sell on.
She admitted bypassing the electricity supply and said the amphetamine was for her own use and to supply to a small number of people she knew.
Hughes was released on bail, but when police returned to her home on September 6 they found a small bag of amphetamine on a kitchen worktop.
The defendant, who has 46 previous offences including possession of amphetamines and cannabis, admitted producing cannabis, possession of amphetamine with intent to supply, abstracting electricity and possession of amphetamine.
Richard Oldroyd, mitigating, conceded the offences crossed the custody threshold, but asked Judge Robert Trevor-Jones to consider suspending the sentence.
Mr Oldroyd said no cannabis was harvested and Hughes had decided to dismantle the hydroponics system before police executed the search warrant.
He said Hughes has a long history of amphetamine abuse, but has been clean for the last three months.
But Judge Trevor-Jones said the offences were so serious he had to pass an immediate prison sentence.
He told Hughes: "This was a fairly normal system for the production of cannabis. You had a second crop, potentially to follow on.
"You were growing the plants to pay the mortgage and general debts which had arisen after the breakdown of your relationship.
"It is too serious to avoid an immediate custodial sentence."
A confiscation hearing will be held later this year.
11 Comments
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by mickey taker, ashbank
Friday, March 19 2010, 9:39PM
“Everyone is missing the point here,this woman said she was growing these canabis plants to pay her mortgage. I thought everyone in the meir had a free house off the council at the tax payers expence....”
by stokiemart, Stoke
Friday, March 19 2010, 6:36PM
“Janice- yes, I understand where you are coming from, it wasn't a criticism of you in any way. My point is a general one. If cannabis was legalised and taxed we would actually be in a better position with regards to tax receipts received by the state AND we would not be criminalising the individuals concerned (with all the associated societal and individual costs, economic and non-economic costs alike). The law is an inconsistent, unreasonable and counter-productive ass when it comes to drug laws in the UK.”
by GW, Staffs
Friday, March 19 2010, 6:33PM
“Johntoe. Why bother with all this cultivating. Why not just buy some plant food, say ' Mephedrone ' and snort some of that. See how many more deaths we get. Really!!!”
by Johntoe, Stokie up north
Friday, March 19 2010, 6:11PM
“Another option, other than total legalisation and the opening of cannabis shops and an entire industry around it's growth and sale
( which would create many thousands of jobs, I might add)
Could be, to allow those that wish to, to grow a small amount, say... half a dozen plants for personal use? This would put the "farmers" out of business at a stroke, IF most "users" are "growing their own" then there would be no point in setting up a huge illegal factory and employing (often) illegal immigrants to run it, would there?”
by Johntoe, Stokie up north
Friday, March 19 2010, 5:53PM
“Try looking at it this way,
IF it was legalised, she wouldn't have been growing it in the first place, why buy from some back street farmer when you can go to a legally licenced outlet where the quality is checked and the amount is also verified,? no "dodgy" deals, I dout the backstreet sellers would be able to compete on price either,
So she wouldn't have needed to bypass the electricity, half a dozen or more police officers wouldn't have needed to kick her front door in and be paid to spend many hours ransacking.... sorry, searching this womans home, and would have been free to chase other "crimes" the courts EXPENSIVE time coul have been better used and there would be a vacancy in one of our over crowded jails, Not forgetting the poor hardworking tax payer would have saved a tidy sum as well,
I know, it's a crazy idea, IS IT THOUGH? I think it's about time a few more of us noticed that the emperor is naked, and DEMAND a total review of the drug laws and indeed the place of ALL "recreational" drugs, including alcohol, in our society,
Because one thing is for sure after what,? 40 years? the so called, war on drugs is lost, it is EASIER now to get a "smoke" than it was 25 years ago,
How many MORE billions of "tax payers" pounds do you want to see wasted on a "war" that can not be won, before you agree that it's time for a re-think?”
by Time for change., stoke
Friday, March 19 2010, 4:23PM
“@ M. Davies
the lad was not let off, due to his age he was placed in secure authority care in herefordshire. Can't go to a young offenders untill you're 16 upto 21.
So he is in a secure unit for under 16's, so not exactly let off!!!
Plus this person alos had 119 gram of amphetamine, thats 4 1/4 ounces for you older people who like imperial measurements!!!!! Hardly personal use that amount!..
And she was stealing electricity......
and admitted she was going sell the cannabis.....
Jail was unavoidable in this case.
Jail was not an option for the other lad due to his age!!!”
by Janice, stoke on trent
Friday, March 19 2010, 4:15PM
“didn't quite understand what you were getting at Marti, my point is if we all committed illegal crimes and then blamed it on our mortgage, bills etc., then we would be in a worse state than we are now, with much more crime being committed. Adults should be made to pay for their actions. You did,nt say if you are a taxpayer.”
by Alan, Staffordshire
Friday, March 19 2010, 2:01PM
“M. Davies, if they just legalised there wouldn't be these inconsistencies, and we would have less to moan about.”
by M.Davies, Blythe Bridge
Friday, March 19 2010, 1:28PM
“This is another example of the lack of consistancey the punishments dished out. This woman gets 15 months in jail, and rightly so. But the other day a Vietnemese youth who had million pounds worth of cannabis growing gets let off !!! Very strange, very strange indeed”
by stokie mart, stoke
Friday, March 19 2010, 12:43PM
“Janice- it takes 'work' as you call it to cultivate and grow cannabis plants. Indeed, ask a farmer about whether it takes any 'work' to grow his/her crops. Maybe your argument should be angled from a 'legal work' perspective? I am more than happy to say that I am a supporter of the legalisation of cannabis and in this light I find it a travesty that we are not deemed to be grown up enough to have an open and transparent debate about drugs in this country. Such a debate would also need to include alcohol which is a of course a drug, those that drink it being drug users too. Maybe such a debate would aid us in reaching a more enlightened, reasoned and consistent approach to all drugs. In the meantime 'black market gardening' such as that highlighted in this article will continue.”