A cannabis farmer whose accomplices threatened an Angus man with a sawn-off shotgun, and who was subsequently sentenced for another offence, has had his prison term cut.
Alan Fraser and Manny Naveed were imprisoned in June last year for growing £145,000-worth of cannabis at Birkenbush Farm near Forfar.
The Motherwell pair were sentenced to 27 months and five-and-a-half years respectively at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Fraser was subsequently convicted of producing £18,000 worth of the drug at a smaller cultivation elsewhere in Scotland.
He was initially given a 42-month sentence, to follow on from the 27 months he is already serving but judges at the High Court have reduced the term to 27 months following appeal.
In a statement of reasons for the successful appeal, Lady Paton said Fraser had been made redundant following a lifetime in full-time work.
“Regrettably his company was taken over and the appellant became redundant,” she said.
“Suddenly, from being a steady wage-earner, he did not know where the next weekly payment was going to come from.
“He had acquaintances involved in the drug culture. That resulted in his tending and producing cannabis plants, and being involved in their supply.”
Naveed, 33, and Fraser, 44, rented a building on Birkenbush Farm after spotting an advert for an 1,800 square foot shed for lease in the Scottish Farmer trade paper.
During their trial, Dundee Sheriff Court heard the massive cultivation could have yielded cannabis worth more than £145,000 when it was harvested, which was due to happen within weeks of a police raid in January 2013.
The court heard that farmers Derek Greenhill Sr and Derek Greenhill Jr had advertised a shed for rent in July 2012.
Naveed and Fraser then signed a lease at £600 per month.
A video was played in court showing the vast scale of the sophisticated cannabis factory they built, with a huge generator powering row upon row of reflective lights, industrial sized extractors, fans, and an irrigation system.
Around Christmas 2012 Naveed went to Derek Greenhill Jr’s office on the farm and accused him of breaking in to their shed, which was padlocked shut.
Days later, three unknown men turned up and threatened Mr Greenhill Jr.
They told him he “better not be going to the police” and said “it will all be gone by mid-January”.
One of the men then pulled out a double-barrelled shotgun and pushed it into Mr Greenhill Jr’s neck as he issued the threats.
Lady Paton added in the newly-released appeal statement that it was “not surprising” a sheriff wanted to impose a more harsh penalty, given the previous conviction.
She said: “The appellant has already been convicted of the production and supply of cannabis at a farm near Forfar.
“In the present case the cannabis plants (at a different location) were valued at £18,000, with their production and supply taking place over a period of two months.
“In these circumstances it is not perhaps surprising that the sheriff took a stern view of the circumstances.
“In the circumstances it is our view that the cumulative effect of the sentence imposed by the sheriff (42 months), added to the two years three months already being served, is too high.”