A PONTERWYD ‘up to his neck in debt’ turned his home into a cannabis factory.
Paul Withnall, aged 36, of Maesyrawel, admitted producing cannabis that could have had a street value of £26,000, possessing cannabis with intent to supply and abstracting electricity by bypassing the meter.
Swansea Crown Court heard how officers searched his home on March 16 last year.
They found 31 cannabis plants growing in a bedroom and herbal cannabis in a black bin liner in the kitchen.
Text messages found on a mobile telephone showed that Withnall had been dealing in the drug.
The court heard that Withnall had debts of £98,000 following the breakdown of a relationship.
The judge, Mr Recorder Ifan Wyn Lloyd Jones, said he accepted that Withnall had been “up to his neck” in debt.
Withnall, a hotel worker in Devil’s Bridge, was jailed for nine months, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work for the community.
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