Cannabis producer caught as police raid her Sutton Bridge home

Police who raided a terraced house in Sutton Bridge discovered a cannabis growing operation.

Officers went to the rented property in Withington Street and found that one of the upstairs bedrooms had been converted to grow cannabis.

Katarina Wilson, prosecuting at Lincoln Crown Court, said: “Police went to the address due to there being suspicious comings and goings.

“When the officers gained access they were able to detect a strong smell of cannabis. Two bedrooms had evidence of cannabis growing.”

Empty plant pots and cannabis bush and stalks were found in one of the bedrooms.

The second bedroom contained was being used as a growing area and contained ten healthy plants.

Miss Wilson said: “Lights were suspended from the ceiling and there was a ventilation system. Timer switches and temperature gauges were recovered.”

No-one was in the property at the time of the police search but three days later the tenant, Sarah Kelk, handed herself in and confessed that the cannabis plants belonged to her.

Kelk (24), now of Bridge Road, Sutton Bridge, admitted production of cannabis between August 11 and October 11, 2013.

She was given a six-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months with 12 months’ supervision.

Judge John Pini QC told her: “You have had a serious cannabis addiction for a long time. It is not harmless. It is a drug that causes a significant number of health problems and is immensely damaging.

“You have come perilously close to an immediate prison sentence but I want to see if you can rid yourself of the drug.”

Liz Harte, defending, said that although Kelk was the tenant she spent very little time at the property as it was almost uninhabitable.

She described Kelk as a vulnerable woman and added: “She has always been brought up with the ethos that you smoke cannabis.

“She moved away to this awful flat. It was almost uninhabitable.

“Her cannabis use escalated no doubt due to her circumstances.

“She was smoking cannabis in copious quantities.”

Miss Harte said Kelk was addicted to cannabis and needed help to rid herself of her drug problem.