Police found the cannabis plants in what was described as a “sophisticated” operation during sentencing in January 2024. Photo: ACT Policing.
A man who grew more than 150 cannabis plants in his north Canberra home will stay behind bars for at least a year.
Duc Thang Nguyen, 36, had pled guilty to a charge of cultivating a commercial quantity of a controlled plant for sale.
ACT Policing officers raided the Kaleen property on 8 January where they found 152 cannabis plants of varying ages, along with industrial filters, irrigation pipes, fans and other equipment for their growth.
In the ACT Supreme Court on Friday (15 August), Justice David Mossop said the plants took up “numerous rooms”, including “much of the ground floor”.
“The offender appeared to be the only person residing in the home, as each of the rooms which traditionally would be identified as bedrooms and the common rooms were converted towards the cultivation.
“Only one room [was] furnished with the offender’s personal effects.”
The ‘grow house’ also featured unauthorised electrical work to bypass the meter.
Justice Mossop also said it was significant that the plants were found in a home owned by the offender.
“There is no evidence that he was a cannabis user … [It can be] safely inferred that he engaged in the enterprise for profit, whether that was hoped to be derived on a fixed percentage or other basis.”
The court also found that as the cannabis plants were of varying ages, the offending had been carried out over a period of time.
However, Justice Mossop accepted that the evidence didn’t indicate that Nguyen was the ‘mastermind’ of the operation.
He said criminal groups often use people without a criminal history for similar offending.
“The involvement of such ‘cleanskins’ is a feature, not a bug, of the criminal scheme,” he said.
He also said the number of plants found was at the “lower end of the range” given in the legislation for the charge.
During sentencing, Justice Mossop said deterring others from similar offending would be a key element, but he judged it “unlikely that the offender will be before the courts for similar offending again”.
Nguyen had arrived in Australia in 2006 and became a citizen in 2011. He had no prior criminal history.
Justice Mossop said Nguyen’s references described the offending as out-of-character and he was otherwise of good character.
“[They wrote of him as a] devoted partner and loving father, as well as a kind, respectful and hardworking individual,” he said.
The court heard that he was currently living interstate, regularly attends a Buddhist temple, and is studying a goldsmithing course.
Justice Mossop also said that while imprisonment would impact Nguyen’s family, the circumstances of the offending meant a custodial sentence was necessary.
He handed Nguyen a sentence of 25 months imprisonment, with a non-parole period lasting until August 2026.
The sentence was also backdated 16 days to account for the time he had already spent in custody over the offending, and discounted for a guilty plea in the Magistrates Court.
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