Cannabis growers will be jailed, says judge

Judge Roger Keen spoke out at Sheffield Crown Court as he jailed two South Yorkshire men.

Father-of-three Christopher Glew, 25, was found to be cultivating cannabis plants when police raided an address in St John’s Road, Cudworth, Barnsley.

In the basement were two rooms with 27 plants at differing stages of maturity, said Robert Sandford, prosecuting.

The crop could potentially have yielded a kilo of the Class B drug worth £8,480 on the streets.

Glew told police he bought the plants as cuttings and potted them up, cultivating them for his own use.

Jim Baird, defending, said: “He has been an idiot.

“He is a heavy user of cannabis, smoking an ounce a week, so decided to grow his own. It was not a sophisticated operation.”

Glew had split up from his girlfriend over the matter and had to go back to live with his mother.

The building worker, now of Regent Street in Barnsley, admitted producing cannabis.

Judge Roger Keen jailed Glew for 12 months and told him: “If you cultivate cannabis at home, even for your own use, you go to prison.”

In another case, two Polish men from Barnsley were given jail terms for producing cannabis at home.

Krystian Chlopecki, 30, and his brother Bartolmiej, 20, were arrested earlier this year.

Krystian was growing a dozen mature plants under tents in a basement at a Barnsley address. The potential street value was £10,600.

Bartolmiej was driving a VW Passat with four passengers when he was stopped by police on suspicion of aggravated burglary, an allegation which was later dropped.

But his home was searched and six cannabis plants were found growing, with a street value of £5,400.

Both men, of Pond Street, Barnsley, admitted growing cannabis. They both said it was for their own use.

Nathan Moxon, for both defendants, said they had now stopped using cannabis and it had been a “salutory lesson” for them.

Krystian was jailed for eight months and his brother was given four months in prison, suspended for a year, 200 hours of unpaid community work and told to pay £355 prosecution costs.

Judge Keen told them: “People who grow cannabis risk prison sentences, even though it is for their own use.”