Lotto winner cleared of drug-dealing charge

Lotto winner Rodney Wayne Innes was acquitted yesterday on two drugs charges after a judge-only trial in Timaru District Court.

Innes, 54, appeared before Judge David Saunders on charges of possession of cannabis for the purposes of sale and possession of equipment capable of being used to cultivate cannabis, with the intention of using it to cultivate cannabis.

Innes pleaded guilty to a charge of cultivating cannabis.

Judge Saunders acquitted Innes on the possession charges, fined him $1200 on the cultivating charge, and ordered him to pay $1000 towards the costs of prosecution.

Judge Saunders said he could not reject Innes' evidence out of hand.

"He's a man well-versed in the ways of the criminal drug world, but he doesn't have the sophistication or cunning about him that would have enabled him to have lied in a way that would have fooled this court."

Judge Saunders said Innes impressed him as somebody who had the ability to now live a life without resorting to having to deal in drugs.

The court heard that police searched Innes' property in December. They found 1.146kgs of cannabis wrapped in plastic bags in three ammunition tins concealed in the garden, bags of cannabis roots, cannabis plant material in a wheelie bin, two cannabis plants growing in a conservatory, and small amounts of cannabis material in a campervan and in the kitchen.

In a garage, police found equipment, including dehumidifiers, polystyrene, growth enhancers, seed pods, electrical equipment, filters and extractor fans, lamps, transformers and extension cords.

Defence counsel Mike Radford said Innes was a long-term user of cannabis and had been to jail for dealing in cannabis.

However, he was now an extremely wealthy man, and since his $1.3 million Lotto win in 2001, he had received only speeding fines.

"And while he still breaks the law from time to time by using cannabis, dealing in it is not something he undertakes."

In evidence, Innes said he had received a call from a cousin, saying his Lyttelton flat had been raided by police and asking if he could go and pick up his clothes. Innes agreed, taking his campervan to Christchurch. While there, he was told his cousin had another flat and property needed to be cleared out of that.

He returned to Christchurch a few days later with a large trailer, loaded everything on to it, and took it home.

He stacked the trailer's contents in one of his garages. When he discovered the ammunition tins of cannabis, he wasn't sure what to do, so he hid them in the garden.

Innes admitted taking a cannabis plant from one of the flats and said he had intended to throw it away on the way home.

Questioned about differences from what he said in a police video interview to his evidence in court - about where he found the cannabis plant and when he looked in the ammunition tins - Innes said all he was trying to do was not get his cousin into trouble.

He said that his cousin had intended to write a letter to the court explaining what had happened but that his cousin's lawyer had told him not to.

Innes said he planned to either keep the cannabis-growing gear until his cousin was able to collect it or, if the opportunity arose, sell it and give the money to his cousin.

"I don't need to sell drugs; I don't want to sell drugs. I'm not in that scene. I just did a favour for my cousin."

- NZPA