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Wendy house cannabis grower sent to prison
A man who was caught growing cannabis plants in Wendy houses at his home in Leeds has been jailed for 12 months.
Jonathan Collins, 29, was arrested when police executed a search warrant at his home on Sholebrooke Street, Chapeltown.
Leeds Crown Court heard Collins’s partner and two young children were at home at the time. Officers found 36 cannabis plants growing in two Wendy houses in one of the bedrooms. They were fitted with an air filter and watering system.
Plant fertiliser was found in the bathroom and the electricity supply to the property had been bypassed. The court heard Collins was training to be an electrician.
Bags of cannabis and scales were also found in a downstairs cupboard. Collins admitted to officers that the plants and the drugs belonged to him.
The court heard the 36 plants had a potential yield worth around £8,000 but only around half of them were in good condition.
Collins was interviewed after the arrest, on December 18 last year, and said he intended to grow the cannabis mainly for himself and to supply to a close group of friends.
He pleaded guilty to producing cannabis and producing cannabis with intent to supply. The court heard he has two previous convictions for drugs offences.
Andrew Foley, mitigating, said Collins had been given the plants ten day before his arrest and half of them were already dying.
He said: “He is not a very good gardener it would appear and he expected only 12 to 15 plants would survive.
Mr Foley said Collins had worked as a web designer until losing his job around 12 months ago. He had also been suffering from depression following the break-up of the relationship with his partner of six years.
The court heard there had been a delay in bringing the case to court due to the senior police officer in charge of the investigation being on long-term sick leave. Mr Foley said Collins had not been in trouble since the offences.
Jailing him, Recorder Richard Woolfall said: “While you continue to take these drugs it is going to affect your mental health and the worry is you will do the same again and come back before these courts.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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