Six men of an eight-strong gang were jailed for a total of almost 40 years for turning the listed Flass House near Maulds Meaburn into a cannabis factory.[1] They had admitted or been convicted of conspiracy to supply cannabis after a lengthy Cumbria police investigation.[1]
A mansion rented out for growing
Paul Davies, 64, had owned Flass House for years with his then wife Christine, a songwriter who co-wrote Cliff Richard’s Devil Woman, and ran a performing arts school there until the couple divorced.[1][2] Davies kept the house in the settlement and then rented it out for cannabis growing, paid 67,450 pounds in rent by two co-conspirators.[1] A heritage account says Davies and his five cohorts grew cannabis with a street value of 5.26 million pounds until a neighbour grew suspicious.[2]
A police expert estimated that 263 kilograms could have been grown inside the mansion in the thirteen months to May 2012, worth between 2.6 and 5.26 million pounds.[1] At least ten rooms were used for growing.[1][2]
The sentences
Judge Batty told Davies he had led police on a merry dance and pretended to be an innocent abroad, jailing him for three years and eight months.[1] Dean Cameron and David Lawrence got eight years each, Philip Branigan and Mark Gallagher seven each, and Charles Neophytou five and a half years.[1] The judge said the gang had selected the rural property carefully and with precision, with all the hallmarks of organised crime.[1]
