Novice Hartlepool cannabis farmer is facing fuel poverty

Jonathan Wilson, 46, did not divert the supply from his meter for the powerful lights and heating that he installed.

His electricity bill just added to his headache when he appeared before Teesside Crown Court.

His barrister, Paul Cleasby, said that he was in a great deal of debt and suffering fuel poverty.

Most cannabis farmers who appear in court are also charged with abstracting electricity, Wilson was told by Judge Howard Crowson.

Wilson was arrested at 10.30am on January 26 last year when police went to his street to investigate a possible cannabis farm there, said prosecutor Jonathan Gittins.

In the living room they found two sacks of cannabis bush and dried cannabis, some divided into quarter-ounce deals worth between £851 and £1,276, and 11 cannabis plants valued at up to £27,000.

There was also a set of scales and a mobile phone containing text conversations with people requesting cannabis.

Wilson said that he used up to four grams a day to ease his depression and he would sell cannabis to friends and family.

Mr Cleasby said that Wilson was candid with police and had done a great deal of work to improve his personal situation.

He said, however, that Wilson’s position with debt and fuel poverty was unlikely to improve soon.

Wilson, of Powell Street, Hartlepool, received a 12-month jail sentence, which was suspended for 12 months, and was ordered to undertake 120 hours of unpaid work and a three-month evening curfew after he pleaded guilty to supplying cannabis and producing the class B drug.

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