Father and son turned Nutley puppy farm into cannabis factory
A FATHER and son have been sentenced for converting a dog-breeding farm into a huge cannabis factory.
John Moss, 61, turned to growing marijuana because his business had failed, and "dragged" his 39-year-old son Alasdair along with him.
Police discovered hundreds of plants when they raided Wrens Stud, near Nutley, in March last year.
Owner John Moss used the internet to research how to grow the cannabis after building up significant debts from a previous business making horse boxes.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
Officers found the plants being grown in several different buildings at the farm in Down Street, one of which contained a litter of newborn puppies.
On its website, the farm says it also rears horses, ponies and cross-breed dogs, such as Labradoodles, to "excellent health".
In total, police believe the plants could have generated an annual yield of 55 kilos, with a street value of about £510,000.
John Moss was jailed for three years at Brighton Crown Court last Thursday for producing a Class B drug and three counts of converting criminal property.
Alasdair Moss was sentenced to one year in jail, suspended for two years, for the same offences.
The 39-year-old was also electronically tagged and given a six-month curfew between 9pm and 5am each night.
Prosecuting, Warwick Tatford said 776 plants were found at the farm, of which 398 were established and growing in three separate rooms.
"It was clearly a commercial, well-organised cannabis factory," he said. "John Moss made the admissions straight away. He said he learnt to grow the cannabis on the internet and he saw it as a business opportunity."
Mr Tatford said a small building where puppies were being looked after also contained a tent with 16 plants.
The court heard John Moss used his son's credit card to purchase equipment to set up the factory.
"He met somebody in one of the shops where he bought the equipment and agreed a deal of £50 per ounce, which is a lot less than Sussex Police would expect," Mr Tatford added.
"(Alasdair) accepts he went with his father to buy the equipment and they used his credit card to pay for it because he had a clear credit history. His father paid him back with the profits of the cannabis."
Defending, Julian Dale said: "John Moss found himself with very substantial debts. He set this up with the intention of making a substantial amount of money, but he went into it with some degree of naivety.
"The first crop completely failed, but when the second crop came to fruition he was told the quality was not good. It now emerges he was underpaid substantially, but that's his naivety rather than his criminality.
"He has let himself down and it's also sad that he has dragged his son with him."
Judge Paul Tain ordered the seized items to be destroyed.
He said to John Moss: "It's fairly clear you have been a hard-working person who has fallen into a serious crime as a result of the recession hitting your field of work.
"This is skunk cannabis. It is not a drug that has little impact; it's a drug that we see affecting people pretty much every day of the week. It's not something gentle that makes you happy. It renders people psychotic. It damages their lives and in some cases leads them on to Class A drugs, which can kill them."
After the case, DC Emma Flint said: "In some ways it's quite a sad case. The stud itself is run impeccably well and the animals are really well cared for.
"Unfortunately, they came into financial difficulty and John Moss saw an opportunity, and greed got the better of him.
"Cannabis is not an easy or soft drug; there are consequences."
Comments
by MrSwung
Saturday, June 23 2012, 2:03PM
“End prohibition. The science says it is safer than the majority of drugs. Why is alcohol allowed when it is much worse? Tax and regulate so we can all benefit”
by Focusonpeace
Thursday, June 21 2012, 3:03PM
“Proof that prohibition does nothing to stop cannabis being grown, sold, smoked. How about we try a different experiment, Legalize REGULATE and tax. Watch the dealers go out of business and believe it or not drug use will go down. Prohibition offers no protection, and dealers continue to pressure kids to buying persuading them to go on to harder drugs. Think about it, if it was sold in a dispensary adults will need ID to buy pure lab tested quality approved cannabis, with alternatives for non smokers. Like bootleg cigarettes are available, yet everyone buys from the legal ones at the shops even at that crazy price. Legalization doesn't mean easily obtainable, it means regulation and control. If you think cannabis is illegal because its harmful then your mistaken. Its all to do with politics and money, not science, evidence and health.”
by PoetPeter
Thursday, June 21 2012, 9:33AM
“Why don't we try taking a completely new approach to cannabis? Around three million people in Britain are regular users and whatever we do we're not going to be able to stop them.
We waste £500 million every year on police, court and prison resources when a large proportion of society uses cannabis without any problem at all. In fact, the only real problem with cannabis is that it's illegal.
The risks to health are very small - much, much less than alcohol or tobacco. By a recent analysis of mortality, hospital admissions, toxicity and propensity to psychosis, cannabis is nearly 3000 times safer than alcohol. Why not introduce a tax and regulate system and realise the benefits?
That way we'd have a properly regulated supply chain with no criminals involved, no theft of electricity, no human trafficking, no destruction of property and disruption of neighbourhoods. Then there would be some control over this huge market. There would be thousands of new jobs, sales would be from licensed outlets to adults only with guaranteed quality and safety. Then our police could start going after some real wrongdoing instead of trying to fight a crime that exists only because of a misguided government policy.
Also, very importantly, science now proves that cannabis is one of the safest and most effective medicines for a wide range of conditions. While the government promotes the lie that "there is no medicinal value in cannabis", it has granted an unlawful monopoly to GW Pharmaceuticals to grow 20 tonnes a year for, you guessed it, medicine!
Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR) published independent research on 14th September 2011 that shows a cannabis tax and regulate regime would provide a net gain to the UK exchequer of £6.7 billion per annum as well as reducing all health and social harms.
The only thing that keeps the present absurd status quo in place is weak politicians corrupted by Big Booze and the GW Pharma monopoly.
Go to the CLEAR website for full details: http://tinyurl.com/6l4pb2m”