Cannabis factory three spared jail

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Cannabis factory three spared jail

By staff reporter

News & Star News

Last updated 19:00, Monday, 21 July 2008

<http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/1.206944>

 

Three men who ran a small cannabis factory from a Cumbrian haulage yard were spared a jail sentence after a judge accepted that they were not running a large-scale commercial operation.

 

The men, all from the Shap area, appeared before a judge at Carlisle Crown Court.

 

Michael Murphy, 41, Edward Sanderson, 23, and his father Duncan Sanderson, 55, who owns the haulage yard involved near Shap, all admitted cultivating cannabis plants and possessing the drug with intent to supply.

 

Gareth Shires, prosecuting, said police raided the yard on December 7 last year, finding two large metal haulage containers, one containing 95 cannabis plants being grown under heat lamps and, in the other, harvested cannabis plants drying out.

 

Police later confirmed the plants seized could have yielded 961g of useable cannabis, with a street value of up to £4,747.

 

Passing sentence, Recorder Mark Laprell said he accepted the defendants were growing cannabis to save themselves money rather than to make money.

 

He ordered that each man must do 150 hours’ unpaid work in the community over the next 18 months and pay prosecution costs of £250.