Dudley cannabis-grower given suspended jail sentence
A bar doorman behind a £52,000 cannabis factory has escaped a prison sentence by a 'whisker' – but will be slapped with a four-month night curfew and ordered to do 240 hours of unpaid work.
Simon Wood, aged, 38, of Tiled House Lane in Pensnett, Dudley, told police he ran the operation in an industrial unit near the Red House Glass Cone in Wordsley having run up a gambling debt with a travelling community.
He handed himself in a day after the Express & Star reported officers had discovered the 55-plant factory in July last year. After earlier pleading guilty to the production of cannabis, Wood was given a nine-month jail sentence, suspended for a year, at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.
Recorder Keith Raynor said: "You have come within a whisker of going to prison."
Police officers carried out the raid on the industrial unit off High Street on July 2 after nearby residents had complained about a strong smell coming from the site.
The plants were grown in four rooms over two floors. There was also 324 grams of herbal cannabis found drying in one room.
Mrs Sati Ruck, prosecuting, said Wood had only let the unit for two months. She said the estimated value of the cannabis ranged from £21,000 to £52,000.
Mr Robert Cowley, defending, said his client worked as a doorman, but also volunteered at a boxing club.
