When the police turned up to arrest a Coventry man for money-laundering, they discovered that he had converted the bedroom of his flat into a cannabis factory
And a judge has rejected cerebral palsy sufferer Philip Davies’s claims that the whole of the crop was for personal use to combat the painful effects of his condition.
But despite that, he escaped being jailed after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to charges of producing cannabis and converting criminal property.
Davies (30) of Lillington Road, Coventry, was sentenced to 21 months in prison suspended for two years and made subject to a 6pm-5am electronically-tagged curfew for three months.
Prosecutor Ian Windridge said that in September 2016 a man received a call purporting to be from his bank asking him to return the call, upon which he was asked some security questions and to provide information about his account.
Then over the next five weeks there were transfers totalling £20,300 from his account into Davies’s account, from which Davies almost immediately made withdrawals.
When the police were contacted about the fraud, they were able to trace the payments to Davies, who later accepted getting a cut for allowing the money to pass through his account.
And when they turned up at his home to arrest him for laundering the money from the fraud, they discovered a large tent in his bedroom in which there were 32 young cannabis plants.
They were being grown with the aid of about £800 worth of equipment, including growing lights, fans and a filter.
Sentencing Davies, the judge told him: “I am afraid I found you to be a liar when you gave evidence to me.
“Normally a sentence of immediate imprisonment of the order of two years would be entirely justified – but it is obvious to me you are a highly vulnerable man, easily spotted by the wicked eye of a seasoned criminal to be a front-line soldier. Absent that influence, you are capable of keeping out of trouble.”
Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:35 pm