Dad sold cannabis to pay drug rap son’s legal fees
Sheriff tells OAP prison is only option
A PENSIONER peddled £200 of cannabis a day to pay the legal fees of his son jailed for drug smuggling in Mauritius, a court was told.
Max Wenden, 74, was yesterday sentenced to 10 months in prison after cops found a cannabis factory at a Lanarkshire farm.
Wenden said he had got into the illegal trade to send cash to his son John to fund his bid for freedom.
We revealed how John Wenden, 44, was allegedly caught trafficking cannabis worth £39,000 to the Indian Ocean island by swallowing it. His dad had told police he had been paid by crooks to allow cannabis to be grown on the farm to help feed his pack of 20 dogs.
But Hamilton Sheriff Court heard Wenden had admitted to a social worker that the drug operation was to meet his son’s legal bills. Police uncovered the cultivation at Treesbank Farm, in Harthill, after a fire at the property last January.
Eighty-two cannabis plants were found in a garage.
Max Wenden’s solicitor David Kinloch said John Wenden had lived on the farm and was “well known to the authorities for being involved in the cultivation of cannabis”.
After his son’s arrest, Wenden, of Carluke, Lanarkshire, moved to the farm. Kinloch said: “He had to assume financial responsibility for John’s wife, children and property. He and his daughter used their life savings to send money to Mauritius for legal fees.
“There were a number of court hearings in Mauritius and the Wenden family hoped John would be released but for whatever reason that hasn’t transpired and there are further hearings to come.
“My client ran out of money and fell foul of the misuse of drugs legislation.”
Sheriff Thomas Millar said prison was the only appropriate sentence.