According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), a 57-year-old man from Koekange is guilty of growing a thousand hemp plants in his shed. But the man himself denies that: “I’ve never seen a hemp plant in my life,” he said. The Public Prosecution Service believes that he should be given a community service order of 180 hours and a month in prison for cannabis cultivation and the theft of electricity.
The cannabis farm came to light in March last year due to power cuts in the area. The measurements showed that a possible cannabis farm at the suspect’s address was the cause. The officers then took a closer look and heard a humming fan at the rear of the shed. A strong hemp smell was smelled in the barn.
A thousand hemp plants had just been harvested in the roof of the barn. The owner of the barn was amazed, he told the judge. He had no idea of the cannabis farm’s presence. He encountered enormous chaos. That was not agreed with the tenant. He rented that part to someone who set up a car cleaning business. The fifties regularly came into the barn. He had never smelled anything, let alone heard anything.
The rental contract was in order and the tenant’s identity details had been checked. But later it turned out that none of that was true. To his horror, the electricity was also tapped illegally. To be able to do that, the person had to be able to enter the house. The tenant had a key “He diverted the power while we were on vacation,” the man told the judge. The nursery must also have been carpentered at that time. Because he hadn’t heard of that either.
The public prosecutor did not believe the story of the Koekanger. “It’s an illogical place for a car cleaning company, upstairs in the barn”. She also thought it was strange that the suspect had never smelled anything. The officers almost fell over from the hemp smell when they entered the shed. She found evidence that at least one harvest was done. She wants to recover the profit, an amount of more than 122,500 euros.
The Koekanger’s lawyer asked for an acquittal. According to her, it was certain that the Koekanger knew nothing. The police had too little capacity to go after the real crook, namely the renter in his black Caddy. The suspicion has completely turned the Koekanger’s life upside down. And the man had always had that in order until now.
The court will rule in two weeks.