A WANGANUI MAN who cultivated up to $46,000 worth of cannabis in his garage was jailed yesterday, after the judge refused to accept that he was growing it for his own use.
Jason John Carston, 35, appeared in Wanganui District Court, after pleading guilty to a charge of cultivation of cannabis.
According to the summary of facts, police found live plants, dried leaf and sophisticated cultivation equipment in a partitioned-off area of Carston's garage while executing a search warrant on his property.
During the search they had found 26 "well tended" adult cannabis plants between 20 and 50 cm tall and a total of 1075.4g of dried leaf in the garage and in Carston's bedroom.
Altogether, the cannabis was estimated to be worth between $28,000 and $46,000, Judge Radford said.
In sentencing him, Judge Radford accepted Carston's early guilty plea and lack of previous convictions, but not his remorse.
Carston's crime had involved "significant criminality" in the planting and growing of the cannabis and Judge Radford said he believed his remorse was more to do with the fact that he had been caught.
"You claim your cannabis is for your own use. In my view that is fatuous this is a sophisticated growing operation, there's no possible way you could use this cannabis yourself & You're a commercial cannabis grower," he said.
He also rejected defence counsel Mark Bullock's request for home detention for Carston, saying it would be "inappropriate" and wrong to put him back in the home where he committed the crime.
"You chose to deliberately go about increasing the amount of cannabis that's available for people and the people that use it will also suffer the consequences of the law and health issues," Judge Radford said.
He sentenced Carston to 14 months' jail and ordered the destruction of this cannabis growing paraphernalia.
Man jailed for $46,000 cannabis crop
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.