Bankrupt furniture dealer (70) sets up cannabis plantation « out of financial despair », together with wife: Couple convicted (Lommel)
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The Hasselt criminal court has imposed a 70-year-old Lommelaar 280 hours of work for setting up a cannabis plantation. It was already the second time he ran into the lamp. The man saw a way out to pay off his debts after his furniture store went bankrupt. His wife has also been convicted.
Fortunately, the couple has been married for 48 years. For years they ran a well-rotating furniture store that had the name and fame in North Limburg and the southern Netherlands. In 2014, a drastic end came to the story and the case went bankrupt. The buildings went down to make way for a Jumbo supermarket later. To dampen the well with debts, the couple set up a cannabis plantation. In 2022 they received work sentences for this.
246 plants
With the fines imposed by the court, the well only got deeper. So between January and June 2022 they brought up their green fingers. The moment the judge in Hasselt imposed a punishment for their first plantation, they were already working on a second one. Again it ended completely. A heat and electricity measurement removed all doubts from the investigators. In June they fell into the house along the Pieter Breugheldreef. Divided over two grow rooms were 246 harvesting plants. There were also traces of an earlier harvest.
No other way out
The seventies tried to save the furniture by acting on his own. « I knew about it, but I didn't like it, » said his 67-year-old wife, who pointed the investigators to the breeding rooms.
The man immediately flew behind bars for four months, where he said he came to self -reflection. On the process he said he hadn't seen any other way out. « I started again to pay off my debts and to repay my friends from whom I had borrowed money, » it sounded.
« No money received »
For the plantation he went into the sea with some Dutch clients. In exchange, he would get 1,000 euros per kilo of cannabis. “But I didn't have a euro. I cut the plants, put the harvest in black bags and then they came to pick everything up. «
The defense, through Louisa van Looy and Lore Gyselaers, argued that the couple committed the facts out of financial despair and not out of criminal conviction. When determining the penalty, the judge took into account that the case has long been dragging on the couple. They also fulfilled their first imposed work sentence completely and correctly.
Lost asset benefit
On Thursday, the seventies received a 280 -hour work sentence in addition to 8,000 euros. If he does not fulfill this, then there is 30 months in prison. His wife, who was also found guilty of the full line, is placed under electronic supervision at her home address for one year. If that is not correct, a prison sentence for one year and 8,000 euros is a fine. The judge declared a capital benefit of a total of 30,000 euros forfeited. For the theft of electricity, they owe Fluvius 5,000 euros plus a legal compensation of more than 1,700 euros.
