Dudley cannabis grower detained for 18 months (From Dudley News)

Dudley cannabis grower detained for 18 months

3:00pm Thursday 7th February 2013 in News

A 20 YEAR-old Dudley man caught growing cannabis with a street value of £20,000 has been sent to a Young Offenders Institution for 18 months.

There were 45 plants being cultivated in three rooms at the home of Luke Richards with a potential yield of around two kilo's a year, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

It was a "fairly sophisticated" growing system, said Judge Michael Challinor who told Richards it was clear he played a "leading role" in the illegal operation.

"I am satisfied you did not set it up," said the judge. "It is people like you who owe their dealers money who agree with others for their premises to be used for the production of cannabis."

He said it was always the people down the chain who got caught and sent to prison while the organisers managed to avoid arrest.

Richards of Oxford Street, admitted producing cannabis at his former home in Ivanhoe Street and it was an aggravating feature of the case, said the judge, that he had a previous similar conviction.

Miss Alka Brigue prosecuting said police officers went to the house and discovered the cannabis factory together with a powerful lighting system for the plants.

The plants they discovered being grown inside three tents were just a few weeks from maturity but, she stressed, they were not of the highest quality.

Mr Makhan Singh defending told the court that the defendant accepted he had been motivated by financial gain.