Country club boss jailed after £80,000 drugs seize
The owner of a country club who allowed two cannabis farms to operate on his property has been jailed for two and a half years.
Police raided the Swancote Country Club on the Bridgnorth Road, Bridgnorth, twice in six months, seizing a hoard of cannabis with a street value of £80,000.
At Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday, the country club's owner Steven Platt was sentenced to 30 months in prison after previously admitting allowing the premises to be used for the production of cannabis.
The 42-year-old denied having knowledge of the cannabis factories, which were found in two upstairs flats at the property and in the cellar. He claimed the flats had been rented by two eastern Europeans – who have never been traced by police.
When police first raided the country club on November 25, 2011 they found 48 cannabis plants in two upstairs flats at the property, including one eight foot 'mother plant'.
Following another tip-off, police carried out a further raid at the country club on April 13, 2012 where they discovered another cannabis farm hidden behind a fake wall in the cellar.
Behind the wall, which had shelves with food glued on to it, they found 100 cannabis plants.
The total amount of cannabis seized during both raids amounted to six kilos, with an estimated street value of £80,000.
The court heard from Dc Robert Loach, of Bridgnorth police, that there had been an 'obvious' smell of cannabis when police raided the property.
But Platt said he had not noticed the smell claiming he had suffered from 'decongestion' problems for several years, which had hampered his sense of smell.
He claimed he had only smelt cannabis occasionally – and assumed it was the men 'having a joint outside'.
Mr Phillip Beardwell, prosecuting, said the country club's drive had been dug up to lay an underground cable to power the cannabis factories.
But Platt denied knowledge of the work, claiming the drive had been dug up previously due to drainage problems.
However in his verdict, Mr Recorder Martin Hurst, said it was 'impossible' that Platt was unaware of the cannabis factories.
He said: "It is impossible that Steven Platt did not know the smell of cannabis, he understood the drug world.
"I reject his basis of plea, he was fully aware of the operation and he was willingly involved with it for commercial reasons."
A secret trapdoor hidden behind a false wall led police to the sophisticated cannabis-growing operation, the Express & Star reported at the time. Eleven officers were involved in the raid after receiving tip-offs from members of the public that cannabis was being produced there. The premises had been raided the previous November last year when police found £25,000 worth of drugs and counterfeit clothes.
Police said it was while carrying out an extensive search of the bar area that they came across a 'suspicious' looking wall.
Sgt Bob Matthews said: "There were shelves on the wall but the items were glued down. We then noticed the wall had been covered in masking tape, with dust sprinkled over it. When we knocked on the wall we heard an echo and realised it was hollow, so we knocked it down and that led to a trap door.
"Once we opened that it led to a cellar, which is where we found the cultivation room. It was all kitted out and the electrical equipment alone must have run into thousands of pounds.
