[420 Girl]

UK - A dad of seven who was trying to grow cannabis had almost 200 plants secretly tucked away in the loft of his terrace home, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Michael Walsh, 26, kept the stash hidden away from his partner and the children, but police found it when they turned up at the house on Queensway, Church, on an unrelated visit and could smell it.

The defendant also had 262 grams of the drug worth up to £2,600 on the streets which he said a friend had given him to keep him going.

He told officers he was going to give the friend some cannabis back if the plants flourished, the hearing was told.

Walsh, who had lost his income from roofing due to the recession, had become a regular user of cannabis.

A local vicar, the Rev Neville Ashton, had written a reference in his support to the court, saying he had known him for 25 years and he would say Walsh came from a sound and stable background.

The defendant admitted attempting to produce cannabis and possessing the drug.

He was spared jail by a judge who said the operation had been in its infancy, but it was by no means an amateurish effort.

Recorder Dennis Watson, QC, said: "The seriousness is that you get better at growing cannabis, you can grow more and its not long before people are borrowing off you and you become a supplier to them."

Walsh was given four months in jail, suspended for a year, with 12 months supervision and unpaid work. He had no previous convictions.

Stephen Parker, prosecuting, said on March 12, last year, police went to the defendant's home on a routine check.

Police found 171 cannabis plants and cannabis bush, growing agents, electrical equipment and lighting systems.

The defendant told police he tried to grow his own "weed" and had stuck at the first hurdle. He said it was his girlfriend's house but she had nothing to do with it.

David Earnshaw, for Walsh, said the plants were small and none of them had matured. He had kept the drugs being cultivated away from his partner and children, the youngest of whom had been only three-weeks-old.


http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...ants-loft.html