Garden store pair in court

In a picture taken in 1997, Catherine Collins tends to a lime tree growing under hydroponic lights. Photo / APN

Shop assistant was not responsible for the stock at Switched On Gardener, lawyer says

A woman charged with selling items used to cultivate cannabis was a shop assistant selling items freely available at several outlets, a jury has heard.

Catherine Anne Collins, 44, and her partner and colleague Ian Robert Kerr, 51, are on trial in the Whangarei District Court.

They are accused of selling items to cultivate cannabis from the city's Switched On Gardener store.

The pair were arrested in 2009 during a two-year undercover police operation that targeted individuals and businesses allegedly selling equipment used for growing cannabis.

Officers swooped on 35 businesses across New Zealand - including all 16 branches of Switched On Gardener - alleging employees sold drugs, cannabis plants and growing equipment to undercover police.

Kerr is facing two charges of supplying material for the cultivation of cannabis and two of supplying equipment for the cultivation of cannabis and Collins faces one of each of the same charges.

Collins' lawyer, Roger Bowden, told the jury his client was just a shop assistant who was not responsible for ordering stock or sharing the profit.

He said the items purchased by the undercover officers were freely available in half a dozen retail outlets throughout Whangarei.

Mr Bowden claimed police "danced" around the issue.

He said the Crown's proposition that his client knew the items were used to grow cannabis could not be proved.

The three-day trial before a jury of nine men and three women started in the Whangarei District Court on Monday.

The Crown is expected to close its case today. Crown prosecutor Alice Hyndman said three undercover officers assumed the names Billy, Ronnie and Russ and visited the Switched On Gardener premises on different occasions using covert recording devices.

"Billy" took the witness stand on Monday and his recordings were played to the jury.

He first went to Switched On Gardener on January 29, 2009 and told Kerr he had been given a cannabis-growing kit but needed assistance in setting it up.

Kerr allegedly gave him tips on male and female cannabis plants, the value of each plant and about lights, carbon filters, and the type of equipment needed to grow the drugs.

Ms Hyndman said "Ronnie" also bought items for growing cannabis and sought tips on its cultivation. She said "Russ" bought $809 worth of goods from Collins and six months later bought a lamp.

The couple's Whangarei home was searched and police recovered a grower's handbook, pipes and papers for smoking cannabis.

- APN