Barrowford 'gardener' tended cannabis plants (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Barrowford 'gardener' tended cannabis plants
9:15am Monday 18th June 2012 in Barrowford
A ‘GARDENER’ for a ‘professional’ £14,500 cannabis farm found in the bedroom of a house in Barrowford, has been jailed for 446 days.
Burnley Crown Court heard that Jason Barker, 34, did not live at the sparsely-furnished terraced property in Nora Street, but from the outside it looked like a home.
Barker, who often stayed the night, was said to be in debt to a cannabis dealer.
He played a subordinate role at the farm and was taking directions from those above him to pay the cash back. Police discovered 32 plants in a sophisticated growing system and the electricity meter had been bypassed.
Barker, a father-of-two, of Whalley Road, Accrington, had admitted producing cannabis and had been committed for sentence by magistrates.
Tim Brennand, prosecuting, said last December, officers raided the property and realised nobody was living there full-time.
In a first floor bedroom was an insulated tent, with the 32 plants, measuring between five feet and three feet. They were flowering and ready to yield a crop.
Barker had 50 offences on his record.
Michael McQuillan, for the defendant, said Barker went to the police station when he found out officers wanted to speak to him. He would stay overnight at the property, to make sure the plants were watered and the lights were on.
Sentencing, Judge Graham Knowles, QC, said: “You knew perfectly well what was happening and what you were involving yourself in. You knew the stakes you were playing for.”
