Man sentenced over 269 cannabis plants growing in Shepparton house

The court heard police found 269 cannabis plants — weighing 189.38kg — growing at a Marungi St house.

The set-up, described by the judge as “sophisticated”, included lighting, an irrigation system and vents.

There was also a power bypass set up.

When police searched the house on November 26 last year, they found cannabis plants of various stages of maturity in six rooms and the garage.

The set-up, described by the judge as “sophisticated”, also included lighting, an irrigation system, vents, and a power bypass set up.

On the day of the search, police found Bui sitting in a car in the driveway.

With him, he had a key marked ‘Marungi house and shed’ and notifications were popping up on his phone from a camera at the front of the house.

Bui’s defence counsel told the court her client was a Vietnamese citizen and had been in Australia on a bridging visa after coming here on a tourist visa.

She said while he came to Australia with his wife, Bui was attempting to assist family members financially back in Vietnam, including their three children.

The court was told he did not have rights to work in Australia, and the cash-in-hand work he had done while living in the Melbourne suburb of Springvale was not consistent enough.

The defence counsel said Bui was introduced to a friend’s acquaintance who gave him the “crop sitting” job, where he was promised $200 a day.

Bui’s defence counsel said her client was “set up to water the plants”, and did not set up the property or own the plants.

She also said the charge only related to him cultivating the plants on one particular day.

As such, she said he was at the lower end of the scale of people charged with this offence.

She also told the court Bui did not have a prior criminal history in Australia or Vietnam, was a man of prior good character, and previously had a good work history.

After he serves any jail sentence, he will be deported back to Vietnam.

The prosecutor told the court police alleged Bui and his wife — who had put up a $30,000 bail surety for him — were picked up at an airport trying to leave Australia on February 5 in breach of a bail condition.

She also said the number of plants found was 2.69 times the number of plants considered by law as a commercial quantity, and seven times the weight that was considered a commercial quantity weight.

In sentencing Bui, Judge Peter Rozen called the cannabis set-up “sophisticated” and said it was of a “significant scale”.

However, he said Bui’s role “appears to be relatively minor”, but said general deterrence was a consideration in his sentence.

“This court sees on a daily basis the toll drug abuse and addiction has on the community and people who take part must see they will be sent to prison,” Judge Rozen said.

Bui was sentenced to 22 months in prison, and will have to serve 12 months before becoming eligible for parole.

The judge ruled that the 241 days Bui has spent in pre-sentence detention waiting for the matter to finalise in court will count as time already served.