Cannabis man 'grew it all for his own use'

A TRAVELLER from New Zealand grew 59 cannabis plants at his Walthamstow flat, Waltham Forest Magistrates Court was told.

Derrick Craig Davies, 30, turned his rented flat in Wood End into a cannabis factory, lining up rows of the pot plants. He has pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis plants. Police removed a total of 59 plants on December 5 last year.

Davies, who now lives in Dollis Hill, said he grew them for his own use.

His landlady described the room as having studio lights along one side of the room and added that another area was covered in metal foil.

She saw the plants standing on the floor in soil and emitting a pungent odour. The loft hatch had been replaced with a another piece of wood and a tube was placed through it into the loft, she said.

Davies, whose passport has been seizedalong with travel documents by the New Zealand High Commission, is in the country doing bar work with "mates from the southern hemisphere", the court heard.

His defence solicitor said he was of previous good character and had been in the country for a substantial amount of time over the last four or five years.

She claimed: "It was a relatively small-scale operation.He was renting the property and the house did not belong to Mr Davies.

"He grew it for himself and it may well have been the case that he would have shared it with the people he socialised with.

"But it was not a commercial enterprise. He was not going to street corners to sell cannabis."

She added: "Cannabis culture is not uncommon for Mr Davies and the people he socialises with."

It was claimed that it was an unsophisticated operation and that the operation had not used the "hydroponic method" as the prosecution had claimed.

The case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports until March 28.

10:10 Thursday 14th March 2002

Printer Friendly Format

Send This Page To A Friend