KEY POINTS:
Two years ago, the fashion writers were saying Insidious Fix was young, fit and healthy. The future was bright for the innovative Auckland label, which specialised in high-end knitwear.
It was 2005, the year co-founders Jason Crawford and Kylee Davis had the honour of opening fashion week.
They took a select group of international fashion VIPs on a mystery tour up One Tree Hill and showed off the city.
Later, they roared on to the catwalk on mini chopper bikes, their fashion stunt and the garments themselves - described by one reviewer as "colourful knits with attitude" - receiving warm praise.
Yet, a month later the label was pretty much done for.
In November, Crawford was arrested twice within days. Police had discovered a huge cannabis enterprise of more than 200 well-tended plants operating out of his leased premises.
Then a couple of days later they raided another of his leased premises, finding cannabis-growing equipment and Crawford and two others hiding upstairs.
Police claim the three were in the midst of dismantling another cannabis venture.
The fashion industry was rocked - though some insiders say not everyone was surprised to hear of Crawford's arrest.
Insidious Fix crashed and was wound up, unable to come back from the punishing publicity.
Davis has set up a successful new fashion business, Stitch Ministry, but Crawford now faces a long stint in jail.
Perhaps, though, Crawford shot himself in the foot before his trial, which finished on Thursday with the jury finding him guilty on all counts.
On television news after the verdict, TV One screened footage from an earlier interview in which Crawford said he didn't see anything wrong with growing cannabis.
"It's not a crime as far as I'm concerned," he said. And then: "It's a crime that it's illegal."
Crawford is now remanded in custody awaiting sentencing, and the Weekend Herald understands that after his arrest he booked into drug rehabilitation centres in Auckland.
A suppression order made at the end of the trial means other matters cannot be revealed. Former business partner Davis could not be reached yesterday but in March this year she told North & South magazine of the toll the scandal had taken.
"It was a bombshell. I had so many emotions: anger, hurt, stress, all bubbling away. Insidious Fix was my child - I gave birth to it, nourished it. I spent over 10 years building it. I had sacrificed so much to have it and I was really proud of what I'd achieved. Then, boom, it was gone.
"It was incredibly sad for it all to end, and to end because of that was pretty devastating."
At the trial last week Crawford maintained his innocence in the cannabis ventures and on a number of charges of receiving stolen goods.
He was found guilty on all counts but his lawyer, Gary Gotlieb, says his client will appeal.
During the trial a defence witness took the rap for the entire cannabis operation and for stolen goods found, but it did not sway the jury.
Frances Kitson, now in prison at Paremoremo in Auckland, was co-accused with Crawford of growing and selling cannabis, but unlike Crawford had not been charged with receiving stolen goods.
The court was told Crawford had subleased various parts of his buildings to Kitson and that Kitson alone had been responsible for the cannabis.
Kitson also said he had swapped "herb" for property which had turned out to be stolen, such as a jetski that he claimed to have paid "four ounces of dope" for.
He had come along to tell the court this because "Jason's a hard-working family man, I don't really want to see him get lumbered with something that's mine".
Though none of the cannabis was found in Crawford's part of the buildings, the Crown presented a wealth of circumstantial evidence linking Crawford to the operation and the jury found in the Crown's favour.
After the verdict was read, Crawford looked over at his mum and dad, Tony and Carol Crawford, who had travelled from the Bay of Plenty for the trial.
Outside the court they told how their son's life had been ruined. The last two years had been hell, they said.
