update on UK hydro shops

[tony2wheelsgood]

this is an update on a post a coupla months ago, this one from:- "this is derbyshire.co.uk"

http://www. thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/BREAKING-NEWS-cleared-Derby-shop-cannabis-offences/article-196771-detail/ article.html#continueNews (spaces added for spam)

 

 

 

BREAKING NEWS: Three cleared of Derby shop cannabis offences

 

17:15 - 24-June-2008

 

 

 

TWO businessmen and an employee who were found guilty of selling equipment to cannabis growers from a shop in Derby today had their convictions overturned by the country's top judge at the Court of Appeal.

 

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, ruled that the offences of conspiracy to aid and abet and counsel the production of cannabis were "unknown to law" and had to be quashed.

 

At Derby Crown Court in January, David Kenning, 36, of Brook Street, Loughborough, was jailed for 21 months for conspiracy to aid and abet, while his employee, Paul Blackshaw, 33, of Barley Close, Little Eaton, received a suspended sentence for the same offence and conspiracy to counsel - or advise - the production of the drug.

 

Mr Kenning's business partner, Paul Fenwick, 46, of Ling Dale, East Goscote, near Leicester, was jailed for three years for conspiracy to aid and abet and counsel production, possession of the drug himself with intent to supply, and possession of a firearm.

 

Today, Mr Kenning and Mr Blackshaw had their names completely cleared at the Court of Appeal in London and were beginning to put their lives back together.

 

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But Fenwick, whilst cleared of the aiding, abetting and counselling charges, potentially faces another two months behind bars, as he still has time to serve on his sentences for the drugs possession and firearm offences.

 

It was the prosecution case at their trial that Mr Kenning and Fenwick, trading through their Derby-based hydroponics firm, supplied equipment to cannabis growers, reasonably foreseeing that the items would be used illegally.

 

Fenwick and Mr Blackshaw, a shop assistant at their centre, had also provided advice to undercover police officers about producing cannabis and how to avoid detection, prosecutors said.

 

Police later found a large quantity of the flowering tops of cannabis plants at Fenwick's home. He claimed the drugs were for his own use, but this was disbelieved by the jury.

 

Today, lawyers representing all three men argued that their convictions were wrong, as the offences they had been charged with did not exist.

 

In order to convict a defendant of conspiracy to aid and abet or counsel the commission of an offence, the jury would have to be sure that the end offence actually occurred.

 

The trial judge had been wrong in directing the jury that the offence could be committed even when the end offence could not be shown to have happened.

 

Allowing their appeals, Lord Phillips said that, in order for the offence to be committed, the two elements of aiding and abetting and the actual end offence itself had to be present.

 

"There can be no conviction for aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring, unless the offence is shown to have occurred.

 

"It is not an offence to attempt to aid and abet, counsel or procure the commission of an offence," he said.

 

After upholding Fenwick's conviction for possession of cannabis with intent to supply, the judge declined to reduce his sentence to allow him to walk free today.

 

He will now be sent back to prison, but could be released soon under the electronic tagging scheme.