R v Nguyen Minh

Facts

On 13 September 2025 police officers attended a terraced house in Hebden Bridge, having been called about a van parked outside which was said to have been involved in fly tipping the previous day. Inside they found plant pots, lights and equipment associated with cannabis production, with similar items in the van and the front yard, together with 109 cannabis plants across three rooms. Two co-defendants were found shortly after the officers entered; a further search revealed that the electricity had been bypassed and live wires were trailing around the property, and the third co-defendant and the appellant were found hiding in the loft. A drugs expert concluded that the grow was either being set up or dismantled, valued the crop at between £21,000 and just under £60,000, and explained that fly tipping was a common means of disposing of cannabis farm waste. The appellant's fingerprints were found on a glass and a bin liner. In interview he said a man had offered him food and taken him to the address to clean up, and denied knowledge of the plants. After a six-day trial before HHJ Tahir Khan KC at Bradford Crown Court he was convicted on 15 June 2026 of producing a class B drug contrary to section 4(2)(a) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, acquitted of abstracting electricity, and sentenced the next day to two years' imprisonment. He appealed with the leave of the single judge.