Father and son Peter and Mark Yates jailed for £300k cannabis factories
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by Paul Hooper
A father and son have been jailed for
running two cannabis factories set to make them £300,000, a court
heard.
Peter Yates, 56 and son Mark, 37 had admitted setting up
operations in Ashford - hiding behind a legitimate tyre
business.
But they were caught when they failed to mend a broken window at
a business unit in Lincoln Road... and neighbours began smelling
cannabis.
Canterbury Crown Court heard police went to the unit in August
2011 and found a cannabis factory with 100 plants ready to be
harvested.
Officers then discovered another factory on the Henwood
Industrial Estate, in Ashford, with another 100 plants. Together,
the cannabis could have netted them £300,000.
Judge Adele Williams said: "The premises you used were a
legitimate tyre business but you used them to grow cannabis."
Mark Yates, of Gordon Close, Ashford, admitted producing
cannabis for commercial use after the judge told him: "You must
take the greater share of the responsibility for this enterprise as
you were in day-to-day control of the premises."
The court heard he had been in debt and owed money, but managed
to borrow £9,000 from a friend to rent the second factory - telling
her he had plans to "expand the tyre business".
He then borrowed a further £15,000 to buy all the equipment to
grow cannabis, the court heard. He was jailed for four years.
Peter Yates, of Hazel Heights, Ashford, admitted the same charge
and was jailed for two years.
He had joined the illegal venture to "sort out the
electrics".
Judge Williams said: "This was the commercial production of
cannabis."
Tuesday, February 07 2012
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