Suspended sentence for Shrewsbury cannabis grower caught out by fire
A man who was caught growing cannabis after a fire started in his illegally-modified power supply has been given a suspended jail sentence.
Stephen Blair, 49, told firefighters "there's a grow on the go upstairs" after they were called to the flat in Whitehall Street, Shrewsbury, at 11.30pm last February.
They found the fire had started at the power supply in the basement and called police, who discovered 48 plants growing in two of the flat's bedrooms that had been converted.
This week at Shrewsbury Crown Court Blair was given a suspended jail sentence for producing cannabis and illegally diverting power to provide heating for the plants.
The court heard that the plants were worth at least £7,680 with a potential total street value of £40,000.
Prosecuting, Philip Beardwell said: "The fire brigade were called to Whitehall Street on February 19 2018, following reports of smoke or fire coming from the cellar of that building which is divided into flats.
"The defendant was present. He informed the fire officers that there was in his words 'a grow on the go upstairs'.
"Police attended later at 1.30 in the morning. Two of the three bedrooms had been converted into cannabis grows."
The rooms had lights, fans and transformers to support the 48 plants that were spread throughout.
Inspection of the building's fuse board suggested that Blair had been abstracting electricity to support his growing since the previous December.
Suspended
In police interviews Blair said he was growing the cannabis for personal use.
Mr Beardwell said: "He claimed he smoked £25 to £30 of cannabis a day.
"He said he had assistance in abstracting the electricity but refused to name the person who had done it for him."
He said the prosecution rejected Blair's assertion that he was growing the cannabis for his own use, because of the potential value of the drugs.
The court heard that Blair, of Brierley Lane in Bicton Heath, had five previous convictions for eight offences, his last a 20-month suspended sentence for possessing class A drugs with intent to supply in 2004.
His representative Debra White said that Blair now had a partner and a young child, and had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
Judge Anthony Lowe gave Blair a 14-month sentence for producing a controlled drug, and a consecutive one-month sentence for abstracting electricity.
He suspended both, telling him: "You are 49 years of age. In 2004 you received a suspended sentence of imprisonment for supplying class A drugs.
"From everything I've seen that appears to have done the trick.
"I hope that this was in a sense an aberration – I don't think it can be called an aberration because it went on too long.
"You have got a lot to lose."
He also ordered that the plants and the growing paraphernalia be forfeited and destroyed.
