A woman accidentally busted herself and her husband when she called the police to their home and they found a weed farm in the gararge.
Carmen Lodge, 57, was worried about her husband Jason Lodge, 50, who had a history of mental health issues and was missing.
She called police for help, but didn’t realise they would search her house and find the couple’s cannabis plants.
When officers asked to have a look around, on May 15 in 2018, Carmen panicked and said ‘I can’t deal with this’ and ‘can you come back in an hour?’.
But the police explained they needed to search the house, in Ormskirk, West Lancashire, then and there and they discovered 30 plants in the couple’s garage.
Carmen then admitted there were more plants in the cellar where police found 150 plants in a more ‘professional’ set up.
The plants, all at different stages of growth, had an estimated yield of 4.2kg and
12.6kg – worth between £84,000 and £126,000.
Carmen was arrested on the spot and her husband, who was eventually found at a hospital, was also detained.
Initially, Jason tried to say people had asked to use his garage to store furniture to trick him into letting them keep their cannabis plants there.
He claimed he tried to get them to move the drugs but was ‘threatened’. He insisted he had no involvement in the farm as two people visited it once a week.
But the prosecution rejected this story and the court threw it out as ‘nonsense’.
Speaking directly to the couple, Judge Richard Gioserano said: ‘The two of you couldn’t even come up with the same nonsense as you couldn’t get your stories straight.’
Jason pleaded guilty to the production of a Class B drug, while Carmen admitted to allowing her premises to be used for it.
It took almost four years for the couple to be sentenced but Preston Crown Court spared them both jail time.
Explaining why, Judge Gioserano told them: ‘I’m dealing with you three-and-a-half years after the event and very little of that delay is of your making.
‘It took 18 months just for the two of you to be charged and then the Covid pandemic has caused further delay. Both of you have been in no further trouble in that time.’
Jason was handed a suspended two-year sentence, ordered to complete 20 days of rehab and made the subject of a 12-month curfew – from 8pm to 6am.
Carmen was given a 12-month community order and was placed under the same curfew but only for six months.
Both of them will have to wear electronic tags to monitor their compliance with the curfew and the judge said people seeing the tag would likely form an
additional punishment.
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