Birmingham Crown Court jailed Vietnam-born Tung Vu, 34, for two years and eight months for producing cannabis.[1] The former economics student admitted the charge after telling police he thought he had been looking after Chinese herbal plants.[1]
Officers knocked on his door in Grassmere Road, Handsworth, on 3 January 2012 while making enquiries about an unrelated robbery and were struck by the smell of cannabis.[1] Inside they found almost 230 plants, capable of producing harvests worth up to £400,000 a year, growing in a bedroom, while a second bedroom and the loft were being converted to grow more.[1]
Passing sentence, the judge said one harvest alone would be valued at £102,600, with an annual yield of between £300,000 and £400,000, and told Vu that there were 228 plants and he must have known their significance.[1] Police also found his belongings with plane tickets and £120 in cash, along with growth accelerant, face masks and gloves.[1] Vu said he had been in Birmingham only a few days after travelling from Bedford with another Vietnamese man.[1]
