Sheffield man involved in £11k cannabis operation is put behind bars

Sheffield Crown Court was told how Hussain Mohammed's offending came to light when police executed a warrant at a property in Normancroft Court, Castlebeck on May 27 this year.

Once inside, Neil Coxon, prosecuting, told the court that officers discovered a number of cannabis plants being dried out and a 'cannabis production system'.

Mr Coxon said that branches from a number cannabis plants were also found drying on a washing line.

"The police seized all of the cannabis at the premises. In total, there was 1,163 grams. A drugs officer has given an estimated value," Mr Coxon told the court, adding: "The value was £6,645 based on it being sold for £160 per ounce.

"If sold as one-gram deals, the value of the drugs would be almost double that figure - £11,630; that being based on each of the deals being worth £10."

Mr Coxon told the court that when interviewed, Mohammed, of Beighton Road, Woodhouse said that he has been allowing another male that he only knew as 'Omar' to use the premises to grow cannabis.

"In return for a financial reward of £100 in money and a regular supply of cannabis, the defendant admits he goes through between £10 and £20 of cannabis each day, he provided the electricity for the cultivation of the cannabis but said he didn't maintain it."

The court was told that latex gloves used in the cannabis set-up were found in the property. Mohammed, aged 33, denied using them, but after his DNA, as well as that of a number of unknown individuals, was found on the gloves he admitted to assisting in the production of cannabis at the property.

While on bail for the drug offence, Mohammed committed an offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against a fellow resident at St Anne's Hostel who owed him money.

Mr Coxon told the court that Mohammed, who appeared at the sentencing via video-link from HMP Doncaster, punched the man with his fist and kicked him.

Speaking through a victim impact statement, Mohammed's victim said of the attack: "I feel depressed and fed up, it's wrong that this has happened."

At an earlier hearing, Mohammed pleaded guilty to one count of production of cannabis, one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and to a charge of breaching a two-year suspended sentence order he was the subject of at the time he committed the first two offences, that he was sentenced to last year after being convicted of a charge of grievous bodily harm.

Defending, Laura Marshall, told the court: "By his basis of plea, the defendant has accepted that he assisted to try and step up the growth of the cannabis because he was there all the time."

Recorder Angus Withington sentenced Mohammed to 12 months in prison.