Nam Le Vu jailed for cannabis found at Iris Court, Mooroolbark

A man had only been looking after a Mooroolbark house for a couple of days when police raided it, uncovering a major drug operation.

Almost 250 cannabis plants were found in the house.

A man who only began looking after a major drug operation in a Mooroolbark house just days before it was raided by police has been handed a jail sentence.

Nam Le Vu had only been employed to “protect” the sophisticated growhouse from thieves for “a couple of nights” when police stormed it, uncovering 244 cannabis plants weighing more than 42kg, the County Court has heard.

Officers found the large, five-bedroom house in Iris Court hid a series of hydroponic set ups, along with numerous lights, exhaust fans, air filters, barrels of fertiliser and an illegal electrical bypass.

The cannabis plants weighed more than 42kg in total.

Police raided the house on May 24, 2018, but first began investigating it weeks earlier when an air unit’s infra-red cameras noticed its roof was hot, as was a connecting power cable, the court heard.

Vu told police he did not know cannabis was in the house, and had simply been offered $500 a week to stay overnight to “look after the house” and protect it from thieves.

When he was sentenced on July 26, the court heard the Vietnamese father-of-four had come to Australia to work to support his family, and had accepted a “mysterious” offer to look after the house when he struggled to find enough work.

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Judge Frances Hogan said the 42-year-old was different from criminals who cultivated crops purely to gain profit because he had been trying to raise money for his family, and noted he had not tended the crop at all, but noted his offending was still serious.

“The story that you tell about becoming involved in this crime of cultivating a commercial crop of cannabis is one often heard in this court,” Judge Hogan said.

“Were it not for people like you — prepared to safeguard houses in which illicit cannabis crops were growing — then the criminals who set up those crops could not prosper.”

“It needs to be made clear that people who come to Australia to try to find work and have difficulty will not be excused if they end up committing crimes to support themselves or their family.”

The court heard the amount of cannabis found in the house was 17kg more than what legally constitutes a commercial quality, with the maximum penalty for the offence being 25 years’ imprisonment.

Vu was sentenced to 15 months’ jail, after having pleaded guilty to one charge of cultivating a narcotic plant in a commercial quantity in April.

He had already served 428 days in custody.

Judge Carmody said it was highly likely Vu would be deported upon his release.