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A COUNTY Court judge says harsher penalties are likely to apply in the future for people found guilty of illegally cultivating cannabis plants in Victoria.
Judge James Montgomery made the comments in the Bendigo County Court on Wednesday after rejecting an appeal from a Heathcote woman who was sentenced to four months’ jail for growing 31 cannabis plants.
Trudy Rachael Trice, 45, had attempted to replace the jail term with a community corrections order, but Judge Montgomery found her initial sentence had been too “lenient”.
The appeal was withdrawn when Judge Montgomery raised the prospects of increasing the jail term.
Trice pleaded guilty in January to 12 charges, stemming from a police raid on a shed visible from the main street of Heathcote in September last year.
Police found 31 mature plants growing in two rooms at the Pianta Street property, along with a rubbish bag of dried cannabis and 44 heat lamps under a false ceiling. The total weight of the cannabis was 87 kilograms.
The property was also found to have used $6110 worth of stolen power by bypassing the property’s power meter.
Trice claimed she had been forced to grow the plants after a family tragedy.
Judge Montgomery said she could consider herself lucky to have only received four months’ jail.
“This is not a couple of plants out the back, this is a proper hydroponic setup,” he said.
“A recent judgement in the Court of Appeal determined that judges are not giving enough for cannabis cultivation.
“In my view, there’s only one way this sentence can go, and that is up.”
Prosecutor David Cordy described the four months’ jail as a “merciful sentence”.
The appeal was withdrawn and Trice was taken into custody, to begin her jail term.