Burnley building firm boss jailed for £10k cannabis farm (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Cliviger RSS Feed Send your news, pictures & videos

Burnley building firm boss jailed for £10k cannabis farm

10:33am Wednesday 23rd November 2011 in Cliviger By Wendy Barlow, Court reporter

JAILED David Vallender

A BUILDING firm boss who set up a potential £10,000-plus cannabis farm in a rented house in Cliviger has been jailed for two years.

David Vallender, 49, who was not long out of jail for growing the drug, used a separate inner room in the property’s attic, with a sophisticated ventilation and lighting system.

Twenty-nine plants and 92 seedlings, which would have been passed on for cash or for another operation, were found by police who raided the house in August last year, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Former plumber Vallender, of Lindsay Street, Burnley, had claimed he had been cultivating the crop under duress, but a jury had not believed him and convicted him of producing cannabis.

He now faces a proceeds of crime hearing.

David Macro, prosecuting, said police executed a search warrant at the rural house in Rush Hey.

The 29 plants did not appear to be in a good condition.

Police were unable to estimate the value of the potential yield, but would say 25 plants would normally produce cannabis worth £10,000 on the street.

Mr Macro said officers also discovered a list of items for another set-up and the defendant admitted he had drawn up costings for a 200 plant production.

When he was questioned, Vallender claimed he had been put under pressure to set up the farm after he came out of prison.

The defendant was jailed for 18 months for growing £400,000 worth of cannabis in a large industrial unit in Blackburn in 2009 and had also been involved in two other set-ups in Burnley and Rochdale, which were owned or controlled by him.

James Heyworth, for Vallender, said the defendant now had a legitimate business in construction.

The barrister continued: “He is capable not only of employing himself, but of employing others and spends a great deal of time caring for his elderly mother.”

Related links

Judge Simon Newell told Vallender: “It does seem very strange that a man of your age should resort to this. You might be very good at growing cannabis, but you are not very good at not getting caught.”

Comments(16)

Peter-Reynolds says...
1:28pm Wed 23 Nov 11

Why don't we try taking a completely new approach to this problem? Around three million people in Britain use cannabis regularly and whatever we do we're not going to stop them.

We waste billions every year on police, court and prison resources when a large proportion of society uses cannabis without any problem at all. In fact, the only real problem with cannabis is that it's illegal.

The risks to health are very small - much, much less than alcohol or tobacco. By a recent analysis of mortality, hospital admissions, toxicity and propensity to psychosis, cannabis is nearly 3000 times safer than alcohol. Why not introduce a tax and regulate system and realise the benefits?

That way we'd have a properly regulated supply chain with no criminals involved, no theft of electricity, no human trafficking, no destruction of property and disruption of neighbourhoods. Then there would be some control over this huge market. There would be thousands of new jobs, sales would be from licensed outlets to adults only with guaranteed quality and safety. Then our police could start going after some real wrongdoing instead of trying to fight a crime that exists only because of a misguided government policy.

Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR) published independent research on 14th September 2011 that shows a cannabis tax and regulate regime would provide a net gain to the UK exchequer of £6.7 billion per annum as well as reducing all health and social harms.

The only thing that keeps the present absurd status quo in place is weak politicians corrupted by the alcohol and Big Pharma lobbies.

Go to the CLEAR website for full details: www.clear-uk.org