4:52pm Monday 21st July 2014 in News
(8445351)A MOTHER who allowed a crop of cannabis to be cultivated in her loft in return for cash to help pay off her debts has been given a four month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months.
Mandy Summers was said to have acted out of desperation when she agreed to the criminal venture, having been promised £1,100.
David Crook, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said 48 mature cannabis plants were found in the loft of Summers’ home in Bruntoft Avenue, Hartlepool, along with 24 saplings after police went to the property on January 17 this year.
The electricity supply had also been diverted in order to power lighting for the plants. The mature plants, if harvested, and sold on the street as cannabis could have fetched up to £26,000.
Ian Hudson, mitigating said 37-year-old Summers, who admitted production of a class B drug, was a single mother whose involvement had come about through naivety .
He said: “She has shown remorse and has learnt her lesson and is very unlikely to come before the courts again.”
The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton said Summers had been exploited by others.
She had described being approached by “three strangers”, whom she refused to name.
In passing sentence the judge said he did not feel it was a constructive approach to jail Summers immediately. He said he had taken into account her previous good character and the fact she had acted out of desperation.
Mother who cultivated cannabis escapes jail
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