Man grew cannabis worth up to £7k

Dec 7 2012 by Colin Rutherford, Kilmarnock Standard

A 42-year-old man who grew cannabis with a potential street value of up to £7000 claimed it was for his own use after being raided by cops.

At Kilmarnock Sheriff Court Gary Weir, of the town’s Western Road, pleaded guilty to producing the drug at his home in November.

The court was told last week that police received a tip-off that there was a strong smell of cannabis from the one-bedroomed flat.

Said Scott Toal, prosecuting, said: “Officers entered and were able to corroborate this information with their own noses.”

Weir was asked what the smell was and replied “it’s in there,” indicating the bedroom.

In the room police saw “what appeared to be cannabis cultivation” and then obtained a search warrant.

They later recovered five fully grown plants and nine smaller plants, along with related paraphernalia.

When Weir was interviewed he accepted that he was responsible for growing the cannabis.

“He said he had been doing this for about three months and that it was for his own personal use,” said Mr Toal.

The prosecutor said that the cannabis yielded by the plants could be worth anything from £2000 to £7000.

Douglas Macphee, defending, said: “His position is this is the first occasion on which he has attempted to cultivate cannabis.”

Sheriff Seith Ireland said that he would defer sentence for a criminal justice social work report because of the value of the drugs.

He told Weir: “I’m sure you didn’t realise, or perhaps you did, the potential value. It is substantial.”

Sentence was deferred until December 27.