Whitchurch man, 57, grew cannabis to pay off his mortgage
A Whitchurch man who turned his home into a cannabis farm to pay off mortgage arrears ended up with a £3,000 electricity bill – and a suspended prison sentence.
David Unwin, 57, of Station Road, could have made between £20,000 and £40,000 a year with the number of plants he had in his house but Shrewsbury Crown Court was told that he sold the drug for so little he did not make anything.
Unwin pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to the production of cannabis and possession of cannabis with intent to supply.
Recorder Ben Nicholls gave him a 20-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
Unwin was also ordered to carry out 140 hours of unpaid work in the community and undertake an alcohol rehabilitation programme.
Mr Nicholas Tatlow, prosecuting, said police executed a drug warrant at Unwin's home in February. Officers discovered that a bedroom and the loft were full of cannabis plants.
There were 39 plants close to harvest and 28 about eight to 10 weeks away as well as rooted cuttings and some old plants.
There was also a bag of flowering top cannabis, the estimated value of which was between £1,500 and £3,000.
"Experts have estimated that the set up was capable of producing cannabis with a street value of between £20,000 and £40,000 a year," Mr Tatlow said.
But he said that text messages found on mobile phones at the house showed that the cannabis had been sold a prices which seemed rather low.
Unwin told police he had grown the cannabis to make money to pay off his mortgage arrears but all he had ended up with was a £3,000 electricity bill.
Mr Kevin Saunders, for Unwin, said his client was an intelligent man who had a PhD in nuclear physics but who had wrestled with alcoholism all his adult life.
He had had no financial benefits from the enterprise.
"He is still in mortgage arrears and has a £3,000 electricity bill to pay off, but he is not afraid of hard work. If he goes to prison then he will lose his house."
Mr Saunders said that Unwin had used cannabis to displace the need for alcohol.
But more recently he had been given medical help and was now on medication that has vastly reduced his alcohol consumption.
