A north-east man who ran a home-grown cannabis operation using equipment purchased from Amazon has been handed supervision.
Luke Kildare, 37, spent around £1,000 on tents, heaters and other equipment online and began to grow his own cannabis, but was more successful than he expected so began to supply for friends too.
Police discovered 22 plants when they raided his home last July, with the potential to be worth £17,820.
Kildare, of Stonefield Place in Inverurie, previously pled guilty to producing and being concerned in the supply of cannabis.
Sentence had been deferred for reports and yesterday Kildare was back in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to be sentenced.
Defence agent Paul Dunne said his client had been smoking cannabis since he was “11 or 12 years old”, and had started to grow the drug when he moved to the north-east and was unable to buy it.
At a previous hearing Mr Dunne said: “Rather than buying it from other people he decided to begin growing his own cannabis.
“He was more successful than he ever thought he was going to be.
“Various friends used him as their source of cannabis and he was more than happy to oblige.”
Mr Dunne said his client knew it was against the law to smoke, grow and supply cannabis to others, but added the operation “did not put money into the hands of organised criminals”.
He went on: “This was an initial attempt to feed his own cannabis habit. It extended quite significantly.”
Sheriff Graeme Napier commented: “It comes across as quite sophisticated. Certainly more sophisticated than the non-commercial cases I usually deal with.”
Mr Dunne replied: “The equipment he bought entirely off Amazon and it cost him in the region of £1,000.”
Yesterday Sheriff Napier ordered Kildare to be supervised for two years and to engage with the community substance misuse team.
He also imposed an eight-month curfew and granted a motion for forfeiture of the drugs and growing equipment.
Fiscal depute Colin Neilson previously told Aberdeen Sheriff Court police had received intelligence regarding a cannabis cultivation at the property at Milltack, King Edward, Banff.
On July 16 last year a search warrant was granted.
Kildare, along with a female, were found in the living room and were detained while a search of the property was carried out.
In one of the bedrooms officers discovered two tents containing 22 cannabis plants and 25 seedlings.
They also found equipment including filters, extractor fans and heaters.
A number of jars containing different quantities of a “green herbal substance” which tested positive for cannabis were also discovered.
The cannabis is in the jars was given a valuation of potentially more than £4,000, while £2,705 in cash was also found.
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