Heavy-smoking forklift driver turned Pontefract home into cannabis farm
A forklift driver who said he was smoking five grammes of cannabis a day had his home raided by officers.
Sebastian Wilkos was not home when they forced entry and found a 30-plant set up, along with necessary equipment such as lights and transformers.
The electricity at the premises on Carr Lane, South Kirkby, had also been bypassed.
Prosecutor Susannah Proctor told Leeds Crown Court that police had been tipped off so visited the address on March 22, 2023.
Nobody was home so they smashed their way in, finding the plants spread over two rooms.
All of the windows were blacked-out and condensation was visible from the heat generated.
Wilkos, 47, was interviewed and gave a “mixed account” about the plants, but flatly denied he had bypassed the electricity.
He also refused to hand over the PIN to his phone.
Experts believed the plants were capable of producing just over three kilogrammes of cannabis that could be worth thousands of pounds at street level.
Wilkos, of Bluebell Mews, South Kirkby, admitted producing cannabis.
Mitigating, Ashleigh Heyworth said Wilkos, a Polish national, had been in the UK since 2006.
She said he was living on his own at the time, but was now back with his wife and teenage son.
She said he was candid with police, telling them that the plants had wilted during a first growing attempt.
He had started smoking cannabis at 16 but used it to manage his anxiety and sleeping problems.
She said he was smoking five joints a day, putting a gramme of the drug in each, but was now abstaining.
He has been a forklift truck driver for 13 years and works six days a week.
The judge, Recorder Taryn Turner told Wilkos: “You are now 47, and it’s always disappointing for anyone of any age to appear before a criminal court.
“But here you are, a father of a 16-year-old boy, up for drugs. It’s not a very good example to set him is it?”
She gave him 20 months’ jail, suspended for 24 months, and ordered him to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.