All Sliding Door Repairs owner Mick Hughes avoids more jail for growing cannabis at Icy Creek
A Narre Warren South business owner has admitted his role in a complex million-dollar subterranean hydro cannabis set up.
South East
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A million-dollar subterranean hydroponic cannabis set up kitted out with buried storage containers and secret rooms linked by a hallway has been scuttled by police.
Southeast businessman Mick Hughes owned the Icy Creek property where investigators seized cannabis worth more than $1.6 million in August 2018.
Hughes, 36, was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to time served – 75 days – after pleading guilty to cultivating cannabis.
Hughes and co-offender Daniel Haddad were arrested following a lengthy investigation which zeroed in on Hughes’ sprawling Mt Baw Baw Tourist Rd property.
Police Airwing captured footage which showed four newly erected large tin sheds and an open area with access to an underground container in late-2017.
The information was passed on to covert police who observed a large area of ground “heat up” shortly after Haddad walked into a shed.
The court was told this indicated a “significant” underground “heat source”.
Police later observed smoke billowing from the ground and Haddad, who the court heard was renting the property from Hughes, walk outside with a shovel.
Investigators raided the property where Haddad was arrested on August 30, 2018.
Police forced entry to a shed and discovered a concealed manhole which led to the cannabis labyrinth.
A main hallway at the base of the manhole linked 25 20-foot storage containers and several rooms.
Five rooms contained either cannabis plants or harvested cannabis, two rooms contained large diesel-powered industrial generators and multiple storage containers were being used as ventilation rooms.
The ventilation rooms were partially covered by buried vehicles, the court was told.
Police also discovered a large water tank filled with diesel fuel which was connected to the underground generators.
The generators juiced the network of pumps, exhaust fans and lighting which powered the sophisticated hydro set up.
Investigators seized 456 cannabis plants weighing almost a combined 400kg, 53kg of dried cannabis, a gun and a taser.
The seized dope had a street value of $1,692,000, the court was told.
Police seized four mobile phones, cash, USBs and a laptop after arresting Hughes at his Narre Warren South the same day.
The court heard Hughes handed over $40,000 cash to purchase a generator.
Call charge records placed Hughes at his Icy Creek property for multiple days in September and October 2017, the court heard.
Photos of an elevator found at the property were also located on Hughes’ phone.
The court was told Hughes, who purchased the Icy Creek property in March 2017 for $420,000, “assisted and encouraged” Haddad’s cannabis racket.
Judge Pardeep Tiwana said, during an earlier hearing, the set up was “elaborate and very sophisticated” but there was no evidence Hughes was seen at the property during police surveillance.
“Effectively … his role was to encourage and assist his co-offender by providing a generator to which he knew was going to be utilised in the cultivation of cannabis plants,” Judge Tiwana said.
“But he was ignorant of the scope or the extent of the set up or how much cannabis was going to be produced.”
Judge Tiwana said it was inferred the cannabis was going to be trafficked or sold.
Leonard Hartnett, for Hughes, said there was no indication his client was going to receive “any significant amount” for doing his friend a “favour to help him”.
“I obviously can’t say exactly how much he was going to get, I understand that but it was clearly for the purposes of trafficking,” Judge Tiwana said.
The defence submitted Hughes makes a valuable contribution to the community through his company All Sliding Door Repairs Melbourne which employs many staff including his partner.
Hughes suffered “personal anguish” after he was locked-up and separated from his partner and her daughter, the court heard.
Mr Hartnett submitted he longed for the day when cannabis was legalised to save authorities time and resources but Judge Tiwana reminded the barrister the drug was “still illegal”.
Hughes, who has priors for cultivating cannabis, was also sentenced to a two-year community correction order.
Haddad was sentenced in August 2019 to four years and six months’ jail with a non-parole period of three years after pleading guilty to cultivate a commercial quantity of cannabis and deal with property suspected of being proceeds of crime.
