A $700 power bill - about 4 times the monthly household average - led Northland police to a sophisticated indoor cannabis-growing operation.
The find brought Stanley Mark Wrathall a jail term of two years and seven months, and nearly two years' home detention for Sharon Jane Blomfield. The couple, both 44, were living at a rural property near Whakapara when police raided their home last April and discovered a shed containing a growing room.
Crown prosecutor Duncan Coleman said the couple managed to harvest three or four times a year from about 50 plants at a time, which could have generated up to $70,000 a year.
Power bill alerted police to drug operation
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