Beauty businessman turned drugs farmer locked up for two years
A failed businessman who started growing cannabis after his beauty salon collapsed has been jailed for more than two years.
The drugs farm was set up in the building Che Miller had leased to run the venture in Attwood Street, Lye, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
Police found 56 plants under cultivation upstairs behind a large mirror when they raided the address on January 16, revealed Mr Edward Soulsby, prosecuting.
Experts estimated that the crop could have produced a yield of anything between £9,000 and £37,000 depending on the growth.
Miller claimed to have fallen into debt to drug dealers after he stopped being able to fund his cocaine habit.
He maintained they had attacked the salon and threatened him before it was decided to start the drug farm.
"My life was spiralling out of control and I naively allowed them to set it up to clear my debt," he told the court.
Judge Simon Ward dismissed the 28-year-old's allegation that he got involved after being put under duress and his only involvement was to water the plants.
The judge ruled that the defendant had played a significant role in the enterprise.
Mr Ranjit Sandhu, defending father-of-one Miller, said: "He has got a job, found another girlfriend and has turned his life around. Now he wants to stay on the straight and narrow."
The defendant, from Mendip Road, Halesowen, who was of previous good character, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis and was jailed for 25 months.
Judge Ward told him: "This was a commercial cannabis grow. Your motivation was to make money out of it."
A proceeds of crime hearing has been set for August 12.
