Film inspires cannabis factory scheme

By pwiltshire

A cash-strapped Bath man set up a sophisticated cannabis production unit after being inspired by the plot of an award-winning comedy film.

A court heard that 60-year-old Melvyn Britton had hoped that growing drugs could help him out of his financial crisis.

But police seized his 187-plant crop before he had sold any of it and he has been given a suspended jail sentence.

He set up the mini cannabis factory on a smallholding in Cornwall after watching the 2000 film Saving Grace, starring Brenda Blethyn and Martin Clunes.

Blethyn plays a widow who is a keen gardener and begins growing cannabis after inheriting her late husband's massive debts.

Truro Crown Court heard this week that police had got to hear of Britton's crop.

Prosecutor Philip Lee said the drugs were being grown in a seven-room outbuilding equipped with electrical equipment to maximise the yield.

Britton, from Hampton View, had told police officers it had taken him a while "to get the hang of it" but drugs experts estimated that if the crop had grown to fruition it could have yielded more than six kilos of cannabis, worth £34,000 on the streets.

Britton had said he hoped he had a dealer in Bristol willing to pay him £4,000 a kilo, and had spent up to £2,000 setting up the unit near Camborne.

Defending Britton, Piers Norsworthy said that after watching the film, which was partly shot in Cornwall, his client had thought growing cannabis would be a short term way of getting out of financial difficulties.

He said two businesses involving Britton and his brother had gone bust, and his client now had debts totalling about £300,000.

Mr Norsworthy stressed that the first thing Britton had said to the police officers was "this will be about the cannabis" and that he had been fully co-operative throughout the investigation.

Britton had hoped to start a new life in Cornwall and had bought the smallholding, with a two bedroomed cottage, a holiday unit and six stables. It had been let to a tenant who had left it in a dreadful state and owing rent, the court heard.

"He faced complete and utter financial ruin," said Mr Norsworthy.

"His lease on his Bath home runs out shortly and he plans to return to Camborne and let one of the two properties and the stables. "With an income of £600 a week he would be able to continue to pay his mortgage and has the potential to get himself out of his huge financial mess. If he goes to prison he will be ruined."

Judge Christopher Elwen described Britton's enterprise as a "planned and technically adept" commercial operation but acknowledged he had made no money out of it.

Britton, who admitted producing cannabis and possessing the drug with intent to supply, was given a 49-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work for the community.