Despite failing health, Ivan Crump allowed his property to be used by others to grow more than 1000 cannabis plants for the Auckland market worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
After police busted one of the largest cannabis growing operations in Northland in March 2016, Crump denied he knew the full extent of cultivation and also disputed the number of plants seized and the likely yield.
However, Crump and Anthony Charles Dobson were found guilty after a disputed facts hearing in Kaikohe District Court in May and jailed when they appeared for sentencing in Whangarei District Court on Friday. Dobson, 39, a builder, occupied the property on Duddy Rd in Rawene in March last year when a police operation involving a plane, a helicopter and ground staff located two cannabis plantations. Dobson supplied cannabis to people in Auckland.
Police uprooted 877 plants up to 2m high among pine and eucalyptus trees and a further 211 in a shade house. They were potentially worth $836,700.
Crump, 59, a long-time and at times heavy user of cannabis who suffers from cirrhosis of the liver and hepatitis C, said he would not have permitted such a large cultivation on his property had he known.