A CANNABIS grower with a “horrendous” rap sheet has been warned not to “blow the chance” a judge has given him to continue turning his life around.

In the front room of a home in Victoria Street, Dovercourt, officers found a large grow tent containing around 60 cannabis plants.

A further tent was found in a cupboard under the stairs, while trays containing around 30 saplings were suspended from the ceiling in the kitchen.

Upstairs there were two rooms with tents inside, one containing further cannabis plants.

Aron Reid, 36, was spotted leaving the home via a rear gate and was stopped by officers.

He smelled strongly of cannabis and was found to be carrying a small amount of the class B drug in a container.

When he arrived at Clacton police station, he was heard to make the comment: “Seventy cut upstairs and 60 downstairs.”

He admitted production of a class B drug and appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court for sentence yesterday.

Cathryn Sutcliffe, mitigating, said: “I accept they don’t make happy reading, it’s quite clear from his basis of plea he has had historic issues with drugs which existed for quite some time and when he was released from prison in 2017 he continued to use drugs.”

Ms Sutcliffe send Reid had turned a corner, remaining conviction free and clean from drugs for more than a year.

She said her client had set up his own business in the building trade, is living in stable accommodation and has contact with two of his four children.

The court heard Reid, of Woolmer Green, Basildon, is serving a suspended prison sentence imposed after the cannabis production, which took place in March 2019.

Ms Sutcliffe said: “He tells me that’s going well and the probation report does confirm that.

“He now understands there are areas he needs to work on, he knows what those areas are and he’s motivated to stay out of trouble.

“In his words everything is going really well for him now and much better than it previously had been.”

Judge Patricia Lynch QC said it would be in the public interest to impose another suspended sentence to allow Reid to continue his progress.

She said: “Although you have horrendous previous convictions and you know they’re an aggravating feature, I’m told and accept you’ve been conviction free since April 2020.

“More importantly I’m told all this is set against a drugs background and it seems that since this matter you really have turned your life around.”

She added: “You’ve climbed the highest mountain if you are drug free and have set up your own business, you have stable living conditions.

“I hear you have a close and good relationship with two children.

“It seems that what sentences are directed at, if someone like yourself with convictions like yours can actually make that huge step, then certainly this court is willing to give you the opportunity to continue with that.

“But do rest assured, I don’t think anyone who knows me views me as an easy touch – I’m not.

“But I do accept and I do think it is in public interest you be given the opportunity to continue on the road you’ve started on.

“You must understand if you blow it, it will be entirely your fault.

“If you blow it, I’ll have no hesitation in putting you inside.

“This is not benevolence, it is natural acknowledgement of what you’ve done thus far.”

Reid was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.

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