A man has lost a bid to cut his prison sentence for cultivating more than 200 kilograms of cannabis.
Sean Robert McGrath was sentenced to two years and six months’ jail for cultivating 175 cannabis plants at factories in Laverton and Williamstown North and at his Spotswood home between August, 2012, and March, 2013.
He applied to the Supreme Court to reduce his jail term for the cultivation charge, arguing the sentencing judge had erred in failing to consider a community correction order. McGrath had pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis at two adjoining factories in Laverton with a number of grow rooms and a sophisticated hydroponic set-up using bypassed electricity.
He told police he had been working at the Laverton factories for a couple of months and was paid about $200 a day.
Police seized 131 cannabis plants weighing 198 kilograms from the premises.
McGrath’s Spotswood home was then searched. Police found two bags of cannabis weighing 485 grams, eight seedlings, a hydroponic set-up and an electricity bypass.
Police then searched a Williamstown North factory leased by McGrath. It contained a grow building with three rooms. Police found 36 cannabis plants weighing 13 kilograms.
Two of McGrath’s co-offenders received suspended sentences, while a third was sentenced to a minimum of eight months.
Supreme Court president Chris Maxwell and justices Robert Redlich and John Kyrou said McGrath’s offending had been properly characterised as serious.
“The maximum penalty for cultivating a commercial quantity of cannabis is 25 years’ imprisonment,” they stated in their ruling.
“As already noted, the quantity the subject this cultivation charge is 8.5 times the specified commercial quantity.
“Defence counsel conceded on the plea that the Laverton enterprise was a relatively serious example of this type of offence and that the applicant’s role at the Williamstown premises was important.”
They refused to grant leave of appeal.
