By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
AN EMPLOYMENT agency worker has grown more than eight kilograms of cannabis in his Cranbourne North home garage to help ends meet, a court was told on Monday.
Brett Chaplin, 39, pleaded guilty to trafficking at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court over six mature plants – as well as smaller plants and leaf cuttings – seized by police in September last year.
Defence lawyer David Starvaggi told the court that Chaplin was struggling to support his out-of-work partner at the time.
Chaplin had no prior convictions or subsequent offences, and had cleared a drug screening four months ago, the lawyer told the court.
“My instructions are he is not using (cannabis) now.”
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said the weight of the plants could have been sufficient for a County Court trial.
“If you hadn’t have been stopped, you could have gone on and on.
“If you come here again on similar things, you’re looking at a jail term.”
Chaplin was convicted and ordered to perform 125 hours of unpaid work in the next 12 months.
