Black Country News: Drugs on menu at listed home; W'TON: Ten years worth of cannabis for gardener's 'personal use'.

Byline: By Michael Posner 

A PROFESSIONAL gardener found to have grown ten years' worth of cannabis has escaped jail after claiming it was for personal use.

When police raided the 600-year-old listed country cottage home of Michael Spier, near Wolverhampton, they found menus giving details of varieties of the drug and the effect it had on the user, a judge was told.

But Peter Grice, prosecuting at Stafford Crown Court, claimed Spier, 48, grew nearly seven-and-a-half kilos of the drug at the pounds 350,000 listed 15th century cottage for commercial supply.

In one quarter, pounds 885 was spent on electricity bills to dry the cannabis.

He said Spier, of Walnut Tree Cottage, Springhilll Lane, Lower Penn, near Wolverhampton, told the police that it was for his consumption "but inferences are to be drawn that given the quantity involved it would have been on a commercial basis that it was produced".

However, Judge Nicholas Mitchell accepted a defence submission that the cannabis was grown for personal use.

Spier was arrested in November last year.

The prosecution said the haul would be enough to last a heavy user ten years."

Mr Grice said the police recovered nearly pounds 4,000 from the house which would go towards a prosecution claim for the recovery of pounds 17,5000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

"The police also found a large quantity of resealable bags. There were also two menus which gave descriptions of various varieties of cannabis and efects on the user."

Spier admitted two charges of cultivating cannabis with a basis of plea that it was for his own use. He was fined pounds 2,500 and ordered to forfeit pounds 17,500.

Spier said he was a commercial gardener and smoked cannabis since he was 17 years old.

"It was never my intention to sell the cannabis," he said. "I had no reason to. I had no idea how long the cannabis would last but I thought I might be self-sufficient for five years. I don't think it would have lasted for ten years."

Spier, who described himself as living a reclusive lifestyle without radio, television or newspapers, said his electricity bills had been high because damage was caused by a fire and water "and drying out took about a year".

Graham Cliff, defending, said: "It was a one-off crop for a long-term cannabis user. It was not for commercial purposes."

Judge Mitchell told Spier: "This was for your personal use but it was a substantial quanitity. This crosses the custody threshhold but I don't think the public will be served by sending you to prison at great expense."