Nelson man's £35,000 cannabis habit leads to prison sentence

Nelson man's £35,000 cannabis habit leads to prison sentence

12:30pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in News By Wendy Barlow , Court reporter

A 62-YEAR-OLD man, said to have a £35,600-a-year cannabis habit, has been jailed after he was caught growing the drug again.

John Patrick Corbett, who is also an alcoholic, had 24 large cannabis plants, which could potentially have yielded 630 grams of the drug, worth more than £6,000, Burnley Crown Court was told.

Corbett, who is on benefits, has a long record for cannabis offences and in November 2008 was spared prison for cultivating the drug at his home and claiming it was for medicinal purposes.

Three years earlier, he had been given a community rehabilitation order for cultivating cannabis.

The defendant, said to smoke £100 of cannabis a day, this time asked for help from the probation service again, but was jailed for 26 weeks instead.

Corbett, of Clover Hill Road, Nelson, had admitted producing cannabis, last October.

Silvia Dacre, prosecuting, told the court the cannabis farm, with 15 plants ready and nine growing, was not a very pro-fessional set-up.

She said: “It was a bit shambolic, really.”

The drugs could have been worth £6,300. Weighing scales had also been found.

Kristian Cavanagh, for Corbett, said he believed the probation service could offer him supervision and guidance. He needed to address his dependency on drink, which fuelled his cannabis problem.

The solicitor continued: “He’s not a sprightly 62-year-old. His long-term partner is disabled and relies heavily on the defendant.”

The court had earlier heard that in 2008, Corbett had been caught growing nine plants, which would have produced drugs with a street value of almost £1,300.

He had owned up on the basis he was growing the drugs for his own personal use.

The defendant had received four months in custody, suspended for two years.

Sending Corbett to prison last Friday, Recorder David Williams told him it was always a matter of regret to have a man of his age before the court.

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Nelson man's £35,000 cannabis habit leads to prison sentence