'Switched On' owner keeps his distance

Whangarei's Switched On Gardener shop was one of 16 branches raided by police. Photo / APN

The owner of a gardening supplies chain targeted in a major drug operation is distancing his company from the first of its workers to be tried since police swooped on Switched On Gardener's 16 branches.

Whangarei Switched On Gardener branch manager Ian Robert Kerr, 51, was found guilty of supplying equipment he knew was to be used for growing cannabis after a three-day trial this week.

Switched On Gardener owner Michael Quinlan told the Weekend Herald charges against staff members who knowingly broke the law did not reflect on his company.

"They are nothing to do with the actual management of the company - that's on an individual sitting."

Mr Quinlan is himself facing 35 counts of cultivating and supplying cannabis.

He was charged with 250 other people after police raided 35 businesses and numerous homes at the end of a two-year undercover investigation in April last year.

Police allege Kerr gave an undercover officer tips on male and female cannabis plants, the value of plants, lights, carbon filters and the type of equipment needed to grow drugs.

Speaking about staff members' actions yesterday, Mr Quinlan said: "It's like the situation of a [barman] selling to someone and he has to make a judgment call if he's drunk or not.

"Or a guy in a video store selling games to a person under the age of 18.

"If an employee breaks the law, is your boss responsible? If you like having a drink after work and get caught drink-driving, what has that got to do with the company?

"The company can't be held responsible if you tried to drink and drive after work."

Mr Quinlan told the Weekend Herald last year police had seized $189,000 in a bank account, which he had planned to invest, and restrained his million-dollar Gulf Harbour home.

But yesterday, he would not discuss whether Kerr or other offending workers would have a future with the company, whether his firm would be offering legal support to charged workers, or the status of his own charges, citing his lawyers' advice.

Kerr, with partner and colleague Catherine Anne Collins, who was found not guilty of similar charges, also declined to comment.

Auckland University law professor Bill Hodge believed the undercover tactics used in Operation Lime had set an interesting precedent.

"It's another tool in the kit of drug enforcement authorities.

"I'd like it kept very tight and close, but in [Kerr's] case, to me this isn't even a close case, given his advice and cultivation assistance - it's quite specific."