{"id":36754,"date":"2019-03-29T17:33:53","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T17:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=36754"},"modified":"2019-03-29T17:33:53","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T17:33:53","slug":"man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/","title":{"rendered":"Man began growing cannabis after losing benefits payments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_36767\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-36767\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-36767 size-full-slider\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/POLICE-DO-NOT-LOOK-960x380.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"380\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-36767\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-36767 size-full-slider\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/POLICE-DO-NOT-LOOK-960x380.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"380\" \/><\/noscript> A cannabis growing operation. Credit: Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">A MAN who turned to growing cannabis after his benefits payments were stopped has been given a one-year suspended sentence.<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">The crop was discovered when\u00a0Anthony Kent was arrested on March 12 for an unrelated offence. When told by police that they would search his home,\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Mr<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0Kent said: \u201cAre you going to my yard? I\u2019ve got a grow in there.\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Kent, who grew 38\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">c<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">annabis plants in his housing association home in Newport, was handed a one<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">&#8211;<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">year suspended sentence<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0for the production and supply of a Class B substance,\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">March 29<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">The police estimate the street value of the seized plants to be around \u00a313,680.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Kent, 33, of Bacon Place, pleaded guilty in Cardiff Crown Court and said that he made the decision to cultivate the drug after his Personal Independence Payments were stopped.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">The court heard Kent<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0received these benefits due to his history of mental illness. He was diagnosed with a personality disorder at 12 years old, which was later defined as Schizophrenia following drug use and the loss of three family members before the age of 17.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">When the payments stopped, he turned to growing the plants to support his \u00a330 a day cannabis habit.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The court heard that Kent had 34 previous convictions, seven of which were drug related.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">As part of the sentencing,\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Kent was ordered into a 20-day rehabilitation program and a one-year community order, in addition to his suspended sentence.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">T<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">he\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">presiding judge, John Harrington QC,<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0said that this case had to be dealt with as a suspended sentence, as if he<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0were to be given a custodial sentence it could harm the\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">progress<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0he had made in kicking his cocaine and amphetamine habit.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Kent\u2019s lawyers stated that he has committed to being completely drug free.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">If he tests positive for a banned substance during this period, he will serve his sentence in jail.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A MAN who turned to growing cannabis after his benefits payments were stopped has been given a one-year suspended sentence. The crop was discovered when\u00a0Anthony Kent was arrested on March 12 for an unrelated offence. When told by police that they would search his home,\u00a0Mr\u00a0Kent said: \u201cAre you going to my yard? I\u2019ve got a grow in there.\u201d Kent, who grew 38\u00a0cannabis plants in his housing association home in Newport, was handed a one&#8211;year suspended sentence\u00a0for the production and supply [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":36766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,3],"tags":[24,482,6703,1579,1158,6704],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-36754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city","category-news","tag-cannabis","tag-crown-court","tag-grow","tag-newport","tag-police","tag-weed"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Man began growing cannabis after losing benefits payments - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Man began growing cannabis after losing benefits payments - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A MAN who turned to growing cannabis after his benefits payments were stopped has been given a one-year suspended sentence. The crop was discovered when\u00a0Anthony Kent was arrested on March 12 for an unrelated offence. When told by police that they would search his home,\u00a0Mr\u00a0Kent said: \u201cAre you going to my yard? I\u2019ve got a grow in there.\u201d Kent, who grew 38\u00a0cannabis plants in his housing association home in Newport, was handed a one&#8211;year suspended sentence\u00a0for the production and supply [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-29T17:33:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/POLICE-DO-NOT-LOOK-edited.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"713\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"535\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"William Morgan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"William Morgan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/\",\"name\":\"Man began growing cannabis after losing benefits payments - The Cardiffian\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/POLICE-DO-NOT-LOOK-edited.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-29T17:33:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/a4afa5b58c6b97d1c7e2c19be611be17\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/POLICE-DO-NOT-LOOK-edited.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/POLICE-DO-NOT-LOOK-edited.jpg\",\"width\":713,\"height\":535,\"caption\":\"A cannabis grow. Credit: Pixabay\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Man began growing cannabis after losing benefits payments\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\",\"name\":\"The Cardiffian\",\"description\":\"Just another JOMEC Sites Network site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/a4afa5b58c6b97d1c7e2c19be611be17\",\"name\":\"William Morgan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/2c2b5cfaa03b1aa4b80b372f8d88b0e7\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40a295b88369509b15ddb3a12c86c6041d9bea5486238f3c48aae234081083f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40a295b88369509b15ddb3a12c86c6041d9bea5486238f3c48aae234081083f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"William Morgan\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/author\/morgan-w\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Man began growing cannabis after losing benefits payments - The Cardiffian","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Man began growing cannabis after losing benefits payments - The Cardiffian","og_description":"A MAN who turned to growing cannabis after his benefits payments were stopped has been given a one-year suspended sentence. The crop was discovered when\u00a0Anthony Kent was arrested on March 12 for an unrelated offence. When told by police that they would search his home,\u00a0Mr\u00a0Kent said: \u201cAre you going to my yard? I\u2019ve got a grow in there.\u201d Kent, who grew 38\u00a0cannabis plants in his housing association home in Newport, was handed a one&#8211;year suspended sentence\u00a0for the production and supply [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/","og_site_name":"The Cardiffian","article_published_time":"2019-03-29T17:33:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":713,"height":535,"url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/POLICE-DO-NOT-LOOK-edited.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"William Morgan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"William Morgan","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/","name":"Man began growing cannabis after losing benefits payments - The Cardiffian","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/POLICE-DO-NOT-LOOK-edited.jpg","datePublished":"2019-03-29T17:33:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/a4afa5b58c6b97d1c7e2c19be611be17"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/POLICE-DO-NOT-LOOK-edited.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/POLICE-DO-NOT-LOOK-edited.jpg","width":713,"height":535,"caption":"A cannabis grow. Credit: Pixabay"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/29\/man-began-growing-cannabis-after-losing-benefits-payments\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Man began growing cannabis after losing benefits payments"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/","name":"The Cardiffian","description":"Just another JOMEC Sites Network site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/a4afa5b58c6b97d1c7e2c19be611be17","name":"William Morgan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/2c2b5cfaa03b1aa4b80b372f8d88b0e7","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40a295b88369509b15ddb3a12c86c6041d9bea5486238f3c48aae234081083f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40a295b88369509b15ddb3a12c86c6041d9bea5486238f3c48aae234081083f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"William Morgan"},"url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/author\/morgan-w\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36754"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=36754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}