A landscape gardener was left with serious leg injuries after leaping from an upper floor window in a forlorn effort to escape the police about to discover his cannabis cultivation.
The pungent smell of illicit drugs assaulted the noses of officers as they stood on Andrew Turner’s doorstep on February 7 this year.
Despite knocking several times, no-one answered to let them in to the flat on Morrison Drive in Aberdeen’s Garthdee area.
Worried that the 32-year-old occupant may have been ignoring them and trying to cover his tracks by destroying evidence, they let themselves into the property.
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Once inside, they were unable to find Turner – but they did spot what he suspected he may have been trying to hide.
They found a pair of cannabis plants being grown in bags of soil in a wardrobe, surrounded by a range of equipment including heat lamps, ventilation pipes and a fan.
It was also deduced that one had been recently harvested, with stems and buds found nearby.
The injured Turner, who was apprehended a short time later, now requires crutches to get about following his escape attempt plummet.
He appeared from custody at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday when he pled guilty to producing cannabis, a class B drug, and failing to turn up at court when his case was first due to call on March 8.
Unprompted, he offered an explanation for the latter by shouting to Sheriff Cruickshank from the dock: “I lost the bit of paper”.
Defence solicitor Iain McGregor admitted that his client did have previous convictions.
He claimed they were dissimilar to the charge Turner faced yesterday – non-analagous in court speak – but did admit his most recent convictions were from 2012 and related to possession of cocaine and cannabis.
Mr McGregor added that Turner’s cannabis plants were only for his personal use, rather than for supplying to others.
He also suggested that his client could be punished for his crimes with a fine, asking if the first payment could be delayed.
The solicitor explained that Turner was currently in receipt of benefits because of his leg injury, but expected to return to work as a landscape gardener – and once again earn a wage – within the next few months.
Turner was fined a total of £500 – including £400 for growing the cannabis plants and £100 for failing to appear in court.
He has been ordered to pay it back at a rate of £100 per month, with the first payment deferred for eight weeks.
