Camberwell crop house ‘minion’ gets three years’ jail for growing cannabis

A Vietnamese man’s plum new job as a crop house sitter landed him in jail after police busted him tending to more than 170 plants at a Camberwell home. And he had a surprising reaction to news he would be deported upon his release.

A Vietnamese man is “very happy” to get a free one way flight back to his home country once he’s released from jail, the County Court has heard.

The 31-year-old former international student turned crop house sitter identified only as “Mr Phan” in court documents was entrapped in the scheme to grow cannabis at a residential property in Camberwell after falling on tough times financially, Judge Michael McInerney said.

Struggling to support himself while studying full time, the father of one, whose wife and child still resided in Vietnam, turned to a life of crime, he said.

His plum new role came with a car and paid $8000 a month for about two hours of work each week.

But it wasn’t long before police caught up with him and arrested him in October last year, and since January he’d spent 211 days in jail, Judge McInerney said.

“It would appear that, unfortunately like a lot of students who come from Asia, the hopes do not quite match the financial problems in trying to be a full-time student,” he said.

“His studies fell away and he started to do casual labouring … he was aware that his visa had been cancelled. He had become involved in this criminality because of such economic situation and was in reduced accommodation sharing a house in Springvale.”

Judge McInerney said Phan’s financial situation made him “easy prey” for drug recruiters and noted his minor role rendered him “essentially a minion” in what was a wider scheme.

But he said any person involved in the illegal drug trade must be punished in order to deter from engaging in similar unlawful conduct.

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“(It is a) simple truth that a man who participates in such an organisation at any level, and I stress at any level, must expect and will receive a heavy penalty,” he said.

“(The defence) put that Mr Phan was easy prey and financially vulnerable. Apparently Mr Phan has always wanted to return, and is very happy to return, to Vietnam when this period of imprisonment that I am about to impose is over.”

Phan was sentenced to three years’ jail with a non-parole period of two years for his role in tending to 173 cannabis plants.

Judge McInerney said 211 days of pre-sentence detention was to be counted as time served.