SEIZED: PC Kaye with some of the cannabis plants seized in the raid at the couple’s home.
ONE of the owners of Grimsby’s Mister Stevens Removals tried to convince a court that she did not know that her husband had set up a cannabis factory in their garage.
But Judge David Tremberg said Vanessa Howard’s evidence was “fanciful, at times misleading and unreliable.”
Vanessa Howard and her husband Steven Howard, of Yarborough Road, Grimsby, own the removals firm.
Police found 700 cannabis plants when they raided their home, along with a safe containing thousands of pounds in cash.
Prosecutor Zaiban Alam said bank records from the company’s business account and the couple’s joint account showed there had been almost no withdrawals.
She said: “It is difficult to see how they were funding their day-to-day lifestyle.”
The prosecutor said Mrs Howard in her interview with police admitted smoking cannabis on a few occasions “for health reasons”.
She said she was barred from entering the garage by her husband, who she accused of “bullying and beating her”.
As company secretary, she gave a detailed summary of the staff’s salaries and the firm’s assets and loans.
She also had details of the vehicles the firm used.
But in court she said she was never allowed by her husband to pay any bills and she had to ask for money to do shopping.
Officers discovered from bank accounts, Mr Howard had paid a company called Big Stone River £2,400 for hydroponic equipment.
Humberside Police Detective Constable Andrew Langton said there was no record of how gas and electricity bills were paid.
But there were “over-the-counter payments of cash” totalling thousands of pounds between March 2012 and January 2013.
He showed the court photographs of what officers discovered when they visited the home.
He said there were washing lines rigged up in rooms for hanging up plants to dry.
In court Mrs Howard said she was beaten by her husband once a week, sometimes twice a week.
She said: “I felt I could not answer back.”
She added: “Steve dealt with all the finances. He was not very good on the computer so I did the transactions for him.”
Mrs Howard said: “I did not know where the money was coming from. I could not say it was through the cannabis. I could guess, through me trimming some plants.
“I only trimmed a few. He would not let me because I was not very good at it. He was doing it while I was at work. He told me he did it with friends.”
Asked about the cannabis factory, Mrs Howard said: “I was not allowed in the garage. I had an inkling what was going on. But I was not involved in the production of cannabis.”
For Mrs Howard, Craig Lowe said his client did not have access to the garage and did not know what was going on in it.
He said all the finances were left to her husband.
But Judge Tremberg said Mrs Howard had “a big hands-on stake in the business”.
He said: “Her role was significant and substantial.”
Money was collected by her and placed in the safe.
The judge said: “She knew exactly what was coming in each day.”
He said: “She has tried to minimise her role. I find her evidence fanciful, at times misleading and unreliable.”
The judge said it was “large-scale, sophisticated and on-going cannabis production.”
He said it was a “commercial operation on a substantial scale to realise a substantial profit.”
Judge Tremberg said: “She could not have failed to have known that it came from the production of cannabis in her home, under her nose, by her husband. She shared in the largesse.”
The couple will be sentenced next month.
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Removal firm cannabis factory: One of Grimsby firm's owners claimed she did not know about ...
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