From Country Calendar to court
A sharemilker who once appeared on television programme Country Calendar has been sentenced for his role in cultivating almost $1 million worth of cannabis.
Murray James Simpson was sentenced to six months of community detention and 300 hours of community work at Rotorua District Court yesterday on two charges – the cultivation of cannabis and supplying a firearm to an unlicensed person.
He had earlier entered guilty pleas to both charges.
Simpson is the fifth person to be sentenced in connection to a cannabis growing operation that spanned three South Waikato farm properties.
The police summary of facts revealed the operation unravelled on March 22, 2018, when police searched the three properties, all Te Raparahi Lands Trust dairy farms managed by Simpson.
The initial search located four separate areas used for growing cannabis, all inside forestry edges.
At one property, police found 93 cannabis plants, 1.107 kilograms of cannabis head, 5.57kg of cannabis leaf. In this initial search, police also found a shotgun that farm worker said had been given to him by Simpson to destroy stock.
Further searches across the properties revealed more cannabis plants ‘‘heavy with head’’ and freshly cut cannabis head.
Simpson’s lawyer, James Gurnick, said the offending, and the subsequent repercussions, had left his client feeling ‘‘sick to the stomach about how he has let his wife, children and employer down’’.
‘‘It is a fall from grace, no doubt about that.’’ Gurnick said it had been accepted by the Crown that there was no financial motive to his client’s offending, and he claimed he was the least culpable of all the offenders.
He also said Simpson had received an ‘‘almost unparalleled’’ 30 references of support.
‘‘Shows the respect, the leadership Mr Simpson has within his community.’’
Simpson’s standing in the community was also referred to by Crown prosecutor Matthew Jenkins, who described him as ‘‘a person of standing in the community, someone Country Calendar went and did a show about’’.
Sentencing Simpson, Judge Marie McKenzie accepted his remorse was genuine, and his risk of re-offending low.