[Sativa]

A FORMER Vietnamese boat person locked up for looking after and cultivating a cannabis factory has had his "manifestly excessive" jail term cut after being jailed for 30 months, in November, after he pleeded guilty of the offence .

But top judges at London's Court of Appeal have slashed that to 18 months.

Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, sitting with Sir Rhys Davies QC last Tuesday, heard 40-year-old Nguyen was desperate for money and had agreed to watch over the plants in return for cash.

By the time he was caught by police he had been paid £100, but was promised thousands more. The court was also told that Nguyen, now of Belmont Court, Stoke Newington, had fled his homeland in the 1980s and had arrived in the UK when he was just 15.
Shortly before he committed the offence, he found out that his family were in Australia and went to visit them, but when he came back to the UK he ran short of money.

Mr Justice Lloyd Jones told the court that, on October 3 last year, police raided the property where they found 188 cannabis plants in three rooms.
Police described they were being grown using a sophisticated heat and light systems, and were described as at a "mature" stage of growth.

Nguyen, who had a previous conviction for dishonesty, said he was looking after the plants for others, and had been given cash to cover his living expenses.

Mr Justice Lloyd Jones ruled that in other, similar, cases, defendants had been given much shorter sentences that Nguyen had received.

NEWSHAWK: Shadylady http://www.420magazine.com/
SOURCE: The Welwyn & Hatfield times
CONTACT: The Welwyn & Hatfield Times - part of Herts24
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WEBSITE: http://www.whtimes.co.uk/content/wht...A40%3A57%3A363