Husband built secret cannabis bunker in Northamptonshire when family business was hit by recession - Crime - Northampton Chronicle & Echo

Published on Thursday 16 February 2012 15:36

A COUPLE who took to growing cannabis when the recession hit their plant hire business have been ordered to pay £38,000 or be sent to prison.

Businessman Kevin Payne, aged 46, built a secret bunker on his land in Blisworth to grow cannabis when the recession halved the turnover of his construction plant hire business. However, once police raided the property, he was jailed for 40 months in July 2010.

His 47-year-old wife, Julie, was then sentenced to a 12-month community order with 120 hours of unpaid work for permitting the family home to be used in the production of class B drugs. The couple, who started growing cannabis due to financial worries, are to now have £38,000 confiscated between them.

They appeared at Northampton Crown Court yesterday in a hearing brought under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Jonathan Spicer, prosecuting, said Kevin Payne, who has now been released from his prison sentence, made £28,000 from growing two crops of cannabis.

As the couple have £57,000 of realisable assets, he has six months to pay the compensation order or be returned to prison for 15 months.

The court heard Julie Payne was estimated to have made £10,000 from crime, by turning a blind eye to her husband growing cannabis plants.

Judge Richard Bray said yesterday she now has until August to pay that sum of money or face being sent to prison for six months and then still be liable for the confiscation order.

Police raided their home in Chapel Lane, Blisworth, on November 30, 2009. Six acres of land, where their Lakeview Construction firm is based in Blisworth, were searched, as were the various outbuildings.

A 30ft long container was opened and officers discovered it was being used as a nursery for growing 205 plants. And in the airing cupboard in the house, officers also found another 71 smaller cuttings.

Geoffrey Sullivan, prosecuting at the time, said: “When entering the container, officers noted there was a piece of plywood on the floor and underneath was a trap door with a vertical tunnel into a lower container. There they found another cannabis factory which had 73 plants.”

In all, officers found 351 plants, worth an estimated £80,000, which Payne admitted was his second crop having sold the first one for £12,000.

The court heard in July last year how Mrs Payne was not involved in setting up the factory, producing or selling the drugs, but had simply allowed it to happen at their premises.

via northamptonchron.co.uk