Cannabis grower sentenced

A Tauranga man found to have a large cannabis operation at his home has been sentenced to six months' home detention and 140 hours' community work.

Stephen John La Trobe, 53, who earlier admitted a cannabis cultivation charge, was sentenced in Tauranga District Court yesterday.

When police raided La Trobe's address on November 22 they found 30 cannabis seedlings growing under lights inside a wardrobe, and 54 seedlings at the rear of the property. Also found were other growing paraphernalia, six plants in a container and two bunches of harvested cannabis.

Judge Louis Bidois granted home detention despite La Trobe's eight previous drug convictions because there was no evidence of any sales of the drug. But the judge gave La Trobe a prison warning should he engage in further drug offending.