Dopey Filmaker goes to jail!!

[Chev]

Dopey filmmaker gets jail

Milanda Rout

December 17, 2004

 

A MAN who made a Burke's Backyard-style instructional video about his $1.5 million marijuana crop was jailed yesterday for at least three years.

 

Gelu Pucea spent eight months lovingly cultivating 258 marijuana plants in remote Gippsland bushland, growing some to 6m high.

 

But Pucea's video of his horticultural skill was his downfall when police found it three years after his crop disappeared.

 

Police arrested the 39-year-old in April after receiving a tip-off about his camping site.

 

Bairnsdale detectives found no marijuana plants, but the video tape was discovered buried in a barrel.

 

The video begins with Pucea filming in September 2000 at the Tambo River in Gippsland and introducing himself as "Nick the Riverman".

 

"In this film I would like to show you how to successfully grow pot or marijuana in a place such as this," he says.

 

"So let's get started, we have a lot of work to do."

 

The video charted the eight-month growth of the plants, including footage of when the plants are between 4m and 6m high. "With a bit of luck and good weather I'll make some good money," he says. The County Court sitting in Bairnsdale heard Pucea lived next to his crop in remote bushland 15km from Bruthen for eight months.

 

Pucea pleaded guilty to nine charges including cultivating a commercial quantity of drugs and trafficking cannabis.

 

Judge Geoff Chettle said Pucea knew the illegality of what he was doing.

 

He said it was demonstrated by a reference to evading law enforcement on the video.

 

At one point in the three-hour film, Pucea says he cannot be seen because of law enforcement reasons.

 

Judge Chettle said he was sceptical of Pucea's claim he had not sold the plants after a change of heart. He sentenced Pucea, of Bruthen, to four years and 10 months' jail with a minimum term of three years.

 

Herald Sun

news.com.au

 

That sucks he got sent to jail. I didn't think the judge was going to believe him about 'having a change of heart'