Mark Kelemen: Electrician admits to drug crop in spare room of Deer Park house

Sparky Mark Kelemen was sick of paying for drugs, so he wired up a “grow tent” in his house, a court has heard.

An electrician who was sick of paying for drugs wired up a room in his house as a “grow tent” and planted a hydroponic cannabis crop.

Mark Kelemen, 28, pleaded guilty to a string of four drug and electricity theft charges in the Sunshine Magistrates court on Tuesday, stemming from the discovery of a “grow tent” police found in western suburbs home after a tip-off from a man after an unrelated raid in Warrnambool.

Police raided the self-employed electrician’s Deer Park home in November 2019.

A contrite Kelemen took the officers his grow tent in a locked room upstairs, where six plants had been growing for a fortnight.

According to court documents, Kelemen had wired up hydroponic light for the crop by using an electrical bypass, stealing power from the grid.

Mark Kelemen was sick of handing over money to a drug dealer, so made in ill-fated attempt to grown cannabis himself (file photo).

Kelemen denied to police all allegations relating to the raid and the arrest of the man in Warrnambool, and was never charged in connection to that crop.

The court heard police also found vials of steroids during a search of Kelemen’s bedroom, but, Kelemen said he had not used for years.

In an interview at Sunshine police station, Kelemen admitted he had set up the grow tent at his house, saying he had smoked cannabis for more than a decade and decided to start growing his own instead of paying for it.

Kelemen’s lawyer told the court on Monday the 28-year-old had never faced court on drug charges before, and only had a minor driving charge on his record.

Without conviction Kelemen was ordered to be of good behaviour for six months and pay $500 into a charitable fund.