Drug crop sitter jailed

Raid finds over 100 cannabis plants

A VIETNAMESE engineer who came to Australia to further his career has found himself locked up in prison.

Dai Pham was acting as a “crop sitter” for more than 100 cannabis plants when police raided a home on Pine Oak Ave, Armstrong Creek, last September.

The 30-year-old was jailed for 20 months after pleading guilty in Geelong County Court yesterday to cultivating a commercial quantity of cannabis.

Pham was alone at the home when police busted in on September 13, where they found a sophisticated hydroponic set-up and more than 34kg of cannabis.

Crown prosecutor Nick Goodenough said the set-up was spread across six rooms inside the house, with false walls plastered over windows in each of them.

An electrical bypass had also been created, with officers estimating more than $40,000 worth of electricity had been illegally obtained across a fivemonth period.

Police also discovered Pham was an unlawful citizen in Australia, arriving on a student visa which expired more than a year before his arrest.

It later emerged Pham was being paid $900 a week to travel to the house from Sunshine each day to water the plants.

The court heard the man who brokered that arrangement — known only as “Minh” — was a wealthy man who frequently dined at the restaurant where Pham worked.

It was revealed he had offered Pham the job as a way of paying off a $5000 debt, which had been accumulated after he fell behind in rent payments.

The court was told police do not know Minh’s true identity and that the owner of the Armstrong Creek house was overseas and could not be found.

Defence lawyer Francesca Holmes said Pham arrived in Australia in December 2013 to study a masters degree in engineering.

But she said he ran into financial trouble within months of arriving and, despite finishing a compulsory English language course, never started his studies. Ms Holmes said two years employed on a Werribee farm helped Pham’s situation, but the work eventually dried up and he started racking up debts. She said his parents in Vietnam were “worried sick” about Pham and that he had brought shame to his family back home.

Judge Gerard Mullaly said the issue of houses being converted into manufacturing centres for cannabis was a growing problem.

“All of the features found in this house are often found in suburban or country houses that have been converted into cannabis production operations,” he said.

Pham will be deported to Vietnam at the end of his sentence.