A couple whose cannabis farm was found after a wife reported her husband missing will return to court.
Jason and Carmen Lodge had a cannabis farm worth £126,000 in their Ormskirk home, which was discovered by police attending a missing person call. Carmen Lodge made the call regarding her husband, but did not realise that officers would want to enter their house on Cottage Lane in the town.
Though she attempted to turn police away, the call led officers to the garage, where they found part of the cannabis farm. They subsequently found a larger set up in the house's cellar.
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The pair made no comment in interview but, when invited back, Jason Lodge claimed not to have been involved in the actual running of the farm. He would later plead guilty to production of a Class B drug while Carmen Lodge admitted a charge of permitting premises to be used for drugs activity, reports LancsLive.
The pair were sentenced last year, with Jason Lodge receiving a suspended sentence and Carmen Lodge given a community order.
However, their case returned to Preston Crown Court on Tuesday (September 6). It was heard that no agreement could be made between the prosecution and the respective defences over a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) claim.
That means that all parties will return to court next year for a hearing to determine whether the pair will be forced to hand over cash gained through the illegal operation. Claire Larton, on behalf of the prosecution, explained that both Jason and Carmen Lodge contested the POCA application. A hearing date was set for February 23 and is expected to last half a day.
At the original sentence hearing, Judge Richard Gioserano dismissed an attempt to claim Jason Lodge was forced to have the farm inside the house as “nonsense”. Prosecuting, Kim Obrusik said: "On May 15, 2018, just before 6pm police attended the home address on Cottage Lane.
“That was due to a call made by Carmen Lodge reporting her husband missing. She had some concern for his mental health and mental state. When the police attended, they said they would need to search the property. She said ‘I can’t deal with this’ and ‘can you come back in an hour?’. The officers explained why it was necessary to and proceeded to go ahead with the search accompanied by another member of the family.”
Once inside, they found 30 cannabis plants in the garage with an estimated yield of 1.2kg. Carmen Lodge then admitted there were more drugs in the garage, where the much larger setup was found to contain 150 plants at various stages of development with an estimated yield of between 4.2kg and 12.6kg. The electricity in the property had also been bypassed, while subsequent analysis found Jason Lodge’s fingerprints on equipment in both rooms.
Ms Obrusik said: “He gave a prepared statement which effectively stated that had been approached by people asking to use his garage for the storage of furniture but it wasn’t really for that. He asked them to move it all but was threatened. He attempted to sabotage it and had no involvement day to day. Two people would visit once a week.”
Similar claims were made on the basis of plea which was submitted to the court but rejected by the prosecution. Defending Jason Lodge, Kate Morley said the main mitigation were his early guilty plea and the length of time taken to deal with the matter.
She said: “Prior to the global pandemic, it took some 18 months for enquiries to be made in order to start the ball rolling for these defendants to be charged.” She also said that Jason Lodge had been experiencing mental health difficulties at the time of the offence including post-traumatic stress but had since sought counselling and had not committed any further crimes. Ms Morley added that mobility issues and back problems also meant he was unable to work and received personal independence payment (PIP).
Gerald Baxter, defending Carmen Lodge, said she was not a sophisticated criminal, as indicated by her calling the police to the scene of the crime and was extremely unlikely to reoffend.
Sentencing, Judge Gioserano said that he did not believe that Carmen Lodge ever thought the police would search the home when she called with concern for her missing husband. He went on to dismiss the attempted bases of pleas as ‘nonsense’, adding: ”The two of you couldn’t even come up with the same nonsense as you couldn’t get your stories straight.”
Judge Gioserino continued: “I’m dealing with you three-and-a-half years after the event and very little of that delay is of your making. It took 18 months just for the two of you to be charged and then the covid pandemic has caused further delay. Both of you have been in no further trouble in that time.”
He handed Jason Lodge a two year sentence but decided to suspend it for two years, citing the delays, the fact he has not since re-offended and his efforts to tackle his mental health problems. Jason Lodge was also ordered to take part in 20 days of rehabilitation activities and keep to a 8pm-6am curfew for 12 months.
Carmen Lodge was given a 12 month community order which included a six month curfew for the same hours. Both were ordered to wear electronic tags to monitor their compliance with the curfew and the judge said people seeing the tag would likely form an additional punishment.
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