A RETIRED soldier who turned his house and shop into cannabis factories has had his sentence sliced on appeal - because he needed the illegal drug for a medical condition.
Peter Bridle, 64, of Axehead Road, Briar Hill, Northampton, was jailed for four years and four months at Northampton Crown Court in March after he admitted producing the class-B drug.
But the term was slashed to three and a half years at London’s Court of Appeal after top judges heard the drug was used as pain relief for his muscular dystrophy.
Bridle and his 61-year-old partner Sanny Wilks were arrested when officers executed simultaneous search warrants on March 25 last year at their home in Briar Hill where they found three tents installed for growing cannabis plants worth about £65,000.
Officers found 197 plants at various stages of growth including mature ones ready and cuttings ready for when they were harvested.
Absolute Bargains, in Harlestone Road, St James, were also raided and 32 more cannabis plants were recovered from the basement.
Lord Justice Moore-Bick told the court police raided Bridle’s home in March last year and uncovered a collection of tents containing cannabis plants at different stages of growth.
The judge said: “There was no evidence of commercial supply, but it was accepted that the many plants suggests they cannot all have been intended for the appellant’s own use.”
Toby Long, for Bridle, told the Appeal Court in London he was a long-serving ex-Bombardier who smoked about an ounce of the drug every week for pain relief for a number of medical conditions.
Lord Justice Moore-Bick, sitting with Mr Justice Kenneth Parker and Judge James Goss QC, cut Bridle’s sentence to three and a half years, of which he will serve less than two years behind bars.
He ruled: “In the circumstances of this case the judge ought to have given the appellant full credit for his guilty plea and some additional credit for his personal mitigation. There is evidence that he had various complaints including muscular dystrophy.”