Green thumbed mechanic avoids jail for ‘sophisticated’ Rural Area hydro set-up

A well known Rural Area mechanic who turned his wife’s hydroponic herb garden into a cannabis grow operation for himself and his ‘close associates’ has avoided a jail sentence.

Peter Strecker, 49, has admitted to turning his wife’s hydroponic herb garden into a cannabis grow operation.

A WELL known Rural Area mechanic who turned his wife’s hydroponic herb garden into a cannabis grow operation for himself and his “close associates” has avoided a jail sentence.

Peter Strecker pleaded guilty in the Darwin Local Court to growing, possessing and selling the drug before police raided his Howard Springs home in June this year.

Prosecutor David Castor said the 49-year-old’s “sophisticated” hydro set-up across two bedrooms was complemented by Strecker’s green thumb.

“The defendant monitored and encouraged the cannabis growth by monitoring the pH levels of the water, adding specific nutrients at different stages as the plants grew, supplying an artificial climate and training the plants to grow to maximise the flowering capacity of each plant,” he said.

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Mr Castor said Strecker wasn’t at home at the time of the police raid and was arrested two weeks later at his workshop with more than $6700 in cash in his ute.

In arguing Strecker’s “particular circumstances” meant he should not go to jail, his lawyer Peter Maley said his entrance into the illicit cannabis trade all started following the breakdown of a long-term relationship a few years ago.

“He has a new wife now and his wife was running a Thai takeaway restaurant and they grew all of their own herbs and the like in those two grow rooms that were in the house,” he said.

“The business came to an end and then shortly thereafter my client decided to grow cannabis plants which were discovered by the police and that’s how it came to be in terms of the set-up.”

Judge Greg Cavanagh said while it initially appeared Strecker had “gone to a lot of trouble to grow a lot of marijuana for sale” he was a “middle aged man with no prior convictions” who was “too old to go to jail”.

“For the eloquence of Mr Maley and no doubt his good, hard work behind the scenes and the fact that you’ve got no prior convictions and you’ve been a good hard worker for most of your life, I’m not going to send you to jail today,” he said.

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In handing Strecker a three-month suspended sentence and $750 fine, Mr Cavanagh said if he was busted for similar offending again he would be unlikely to get a second chance.

“If you come back again you’re on thin ice,” he said.

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