Drugs farm pair put behind bars

SEIZED . . . part of the cannabis haul

TWO Chadderton men, jailed for producing cannabis that would have sold for thousands of pounds on the streets, did it to get out of debt, a court was told.

Builder David Canny (41) told police he turned to crime when work dried up because of the recession.

The father-of-four said he had hoped to net between £3,000 and £5,000 in profits from the drug operation to pay money owed and mortgage arrears.

Christopher Bowers (42) who has a previous conviction for possession of cannabis, said he was heavily in debt and had no job or any prospect of getting one.

Both were caught by what Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told was “good old fashioned” police work.

It began when officers went to an address on Spring Street, Oldham, in November, 2008, after being tipped off about suspicious activity and reports of youths loitering outside.

There was a strong smell of cannabis, windows were blacked out, and electric fans could be heard whirring inside. An entry was forced and the court was told that a sophisticated and well-run cannabis farm was operating inside.

Some 24 cropped plants were found in a tent-like growing chamber, and in what had been a dining room, there were 42 mature plants and eleven nursery plants.Upstairs there were 60 more plants.

The potential value of the drugs found, if sold on the streets, would have been more than £14,600.

A forensic examination of the property turned up fingerprints which led police to both Canny and Bowers.

At Canny’s home on Willow Grove, Chadderton, in April, last year, they found a similar cannabis growing operation, and more than 200 plants were recovered from the loft of the house, and his garden shed.

The court was told that when harvested, the potential street value of the crop on the streets would have been up to £34,000.

At Bowers’s home in Laburnum Grove, Chadderton, police found cannabis worth £7,000.

Both men pleaded guilty to charges of producing cannabis, and being in possession of cannabis with intent to supply it to others.

They also pleaded guilty to a third charge of assisting and encouraging in the offence of producing cannabis at the address in Spring Street.

Bowers was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Canny was sent to prison for 22 months.