A VIETNAMESE national was given an SUV in exchange for house-sitting a million-dollar lakeside home.
The catch?
The four-bedroom, two-bathroom place at Bolton Point had been completely converted into a cannabis grow house, one of many Hunter homes being transformed into hydroponic houses by Vietnamese organised crime syndicates.
And when he took the job, 30-year-old handyman Van Truong Nguyen was signing up for a miserable existence that so many other crop sitters, all Vietnamese nationals and most from Sydney, have found themselves living in the Hunter over the past decade.
Nguyen would spend his time much like the plants he was tasked with nurturing; crammed into a room, under harsh artificial lighting, surrounded by the hum of electricity and the stench of cannabis.
And, like all other crop sitters, he was taking all of the risk for very little reward.
Police began surveillance of the house in June 2024 and saw that only Nguyen would come and go from the premises.
Ausgrid reported "concerning" energy readings and police raided the house in December 2024, discovering seven rooms had been completely dedicated to the cultivation of cannabis.
Windows had been taped up, electricity had been diverted and there were all the usual hallmarks; artificial lighting, dozens of energy transformers, filters, vents and bags of mulch and soil.
They found 257 cannabis plants and a kilogram of cannabis leaf.
Nguyen was arrested and told police his job was to provide security, make it look like someone was home, and keep the cannabis plants in good condition.
He said he was given a Toyota Kluger in exchange for his role as crop sitter.
Nguyen's case is similar to so many other Vietnamese nationals who have found themselves on the lowest rung of an Asian organised crime syndicate.
But in extreme examples, crop sitters who lost their job, overstayed their visa or fallen into debt had been preyed upon and exploited by members of their own community.
Nguyen's motivation was purely financial.
He arrived in Australia from Vietnam in 2017 and is now a permanent resident with a job and a family.
He now views his involvement as the "most stupid decision he has ever made" and Judge Tim Gartelmann found Nguyen was remorseful and had good prospects of rehabilitation when he spared him a jail term on Thursday.
Instead, Nguyen was put on a two-and-a-half year intensive corrections order and told to perform 200 hours of community service.
The discovery at Bolton Point in December 2024 was one of a series of cannabis grow-house busts across the Hunter over the past 18 months.
Another man, 39-year-old Van Nguyen, was arrested at a house at Birmingham Gardens in April after police seized 331 cannabis plants and 23kg of cannabis leaf.
And in March this year, police raided a property at Hunterview and found another sophisticated cannabis operation.
Police said they seized 328 plants with an estimated potential street value of more than $650,000.
