Prison return for Rossendale drug farm woman (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Prison return for Rossendale drug farm woman

8:00pm Monday 26th March 2012 in Stacksteads

A CONVICTED heroin dealer who had a potential £21,000 cannabis farm at her Rossendale home, is back behind bars, this time for two years.

Julie Kenyon, 35, who was going to be paid up to £2,000 for her part in the commercial operation, was said to owe money to the loan sharks behind it.

She had 42 plants upstairs in her rented prop-erty, which could have produced more than two kilos of the drug.

She had watered them and was keeping an eye on the enterprise, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Kenyon, who has children and another baby due in October, had previously served three years in prison for possessing heroin with intent to supply.

Kenyon, of Newchurch Road, Stacksteads, admitted producing cannabis.

Experts said that if all of the plants had reached maturity, they would have produced just over 2.1 kilos of cannabis.

Richard Taylor, defending, said she was well aware of how drugs had ruined her health.

She suffered depression and had leg ulcers.

She had shown significant remorse for what had happened.

Mr Taylor said Kenyon, who last committed an offence in June 2004, was adamant she was currently drug-free.

He said: “She does acknowledge it’s entirely her fault that she was put in this position.

“She has to live with that.”

The defendant did it to pay off loan sharks who were operating the drugs growing system.

He said: “That was the gain, along with a little bit of cannabis for herself.”

Judge Beverley Lunt said: “You have two previous convictions for supplying Class A drugs.

“You were to receive a substantial amount of money, between £1,000 and £2,000, to pay off a debt.”