Man cultivated cannabis ‘to help with pain of crash injury’

POLICE FOUND PLANTS WORTH £36K

A DERBY man who was caught growing thousands of pounds worth of cannabis claimed it was to help him deal with pain from a serious motorcycle crash.

Elliot Lowe, of Ashbourne Road, Derby, was found to have grown 49 cannabis plants that could have had a street value of £36,000 at a property he was renting in July 2019.

The 32-year-old claimed he had no intention of selling the large quantity of cannabis and was instead using it himself to self-medicate.

Lowe pleaded guilty to production of a controlled drug, namely cannabis, at an earlier court hearing and was sentenced at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday, March 17.

Gurdial Singh, prosecuting, told the court that Lowe was caught when the owner of the rented property visited it.

He said: “The owner went to inspect in July and was unable to enter. He smelt cannabis and called the police, who forced entry.”

Inside officers found someone had bypassed the electricity and was growing 28 nursery plants and 21 adult plants.

“His [Lowe’s] fingerprints were found inside the property as was his ID,” Mr Singh said.

Lowe, who has two previous convictions for four offences, was charged following this.

Benn Robinson, mitigating, told the court Lowe was dealing with the injuries he received in a motorcycle crash. He said: “I note that this is production, there’s no intent to supply charges. There’s a medical background here of a significant life-changing event when he suffered significant injuries in February 2016.”

Judge Shaun Smith told Lowe he understood why he was taking the drugs. He said: “I accept he takes cannabis medicinally. There was an underlying reason for that as your significant injuries sustained during a road traffic accident in 2016.

“You received very serious injuries during that accident for which you medicated through cannabis.

“You cannot grow this amount of cannabis and not be punished for it.”

The judge added that Lowe’s past convictions and bypassing the electricity were aggravating features, although these were somewhat mitigated by his personal circumstances.

“It seems to me there’s a realistic prospect of rehabilitation in this case,” he said. “You have demonstrated that you can live a responsible life and it seems to me to send you to prison at this stage would be wrong.” He added: “He’s had a chance and he nearly threw it away, but I’m prepared to give him another one.”

He gave Lowe a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, along with a six-month curfew between 6pm and 8am and 200 hours of unpaid work.

There’s a medical background here of a significant life-changing event.

Benn Robinson, mitigating