Man 'unaware' of dope plants

A man on trial for cultivating cannabis denies knowing anything about the hundreds of plants growing on his property

A Northland man on trial for drug cultivation was not aware nearly 200 cannabis plants were being grown on a property owned by his family trust, his lawyer told a jury.

The 42-year-old, who has name suppression during his trial, elected to give evidence at the conclusion of the Crown case in Whangarei District Court last week.

He faces a charge of cultivating cannabis and another of possession of cannabis for supply.

Three plots of land with cannabis plants were spotted from the air by police on March 24, 2013.

The first plot was found in a swampy area and contained 57 plants, 409 cannabis stems and inside a makeshift dry room, covered by a tarpaulin, bags of cannabis leaves and stalks were found. Two more plots with 121 cannabis plants had been located in pine trees and blackberries.

Lawyer Wayne McKean told the jury the land where the cannabis plants were discovered was a "run-off" and was not well looked after.

He said the man's visits to the land depended on the cattle's needs and in summer and he would go there on average once a month for one or two hours. He did not go into the scrub or bush and rarely went to the pine trees.

"He didn't grow cannabis. He simply didn't know it was there."

He said if one owned a property with scrub and water supply in a rural area, there was a chance someone would grow illegal drugs without the owner knowing about it.

The man said he used the land to fatten about 50 cattle. Due to an injury, he hired contractors to prune pine trees, fence, drench and tag cattle.