Auchterarder cannabis farm runner jailed

Nov 20 2009 by Les Stewart, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

ALMOST 200 cannabis plants, with an estimated street value of £50,000, were seized when police swooped on a house in a quiet suburb of Auchterarder.

The stalks of almost 200 more plants, which appeared to have been recently harvested, were also recovered when police raided the five-bedroom house at 53 Glenorchil View.

They could have produced an estimated £25,000 of the Class B drug, Perth Sheriff Court was told on Wednesday afternoon.

The discovery led to 26-year-old Chinese national Shou Tong Lin being jailed for 30 months. He will also be deported at the end of his jail term.

He admitted that between April 20 and July 16 this year, at the Lang Toon house, while acting with others whose identities are meantime unknown, he produced the Class B drug.

A not guilty plea to another charge of being concerned in the supply of cannabis to others was accepted by the prosecution.

Depute fiscal John Malpass said that acting on information received, police liaised with the owner of the property, which had been leased to a “gentleman of Chinese origin.”

They obtained the key and discovered what was described as “a significant cannabis cultivation”.

Solicitor Paul Ralph, for Lin, said: “He is, I’m afraid, another of what is becoming an increasingly long line of patsies for offences of this sort.”

The accused had paid £30,000 to “get out” of China more than four years ago.

Since then he had worked in Bolivia, Italy, France and the UK, paying off that debt.

“In four years, that sum has reduced but he still owes £13,000.

“That gives some idea of the interest rates which are being charged by people in this trade.

“In addition, the same people held, as surety, the title for his family house in China.”

The accused had been made redundant from his last job in a Manchester restaurant and had replied to an advert for cleaners on an online chat room used by many Chinese.

He was to have been paid £250-£280 but was taken to Scotland where he was told he would be looking after “Chinese herbs”.

It later became apparent, however, that it wasn’t a legal operation.

He never received any money at all – he was told he would be paid after the cannabis was sold.

Lin had his prison sentence backdated to July 17, when he was remanded.