A shamed council supervisor jailed for stealing £97,000-worth of equipment from his employers was also growing cannabis.
As previously reported on Chroniclelive, Karl Ellison had worked for Newcastle City Council for 25 years and was a highly trusted store warehouse boss with access to the local authority's funds. But in a shocking abuse of his position, he ordered high value items from suppliers, collected them himself then sold them on and pocketed the proceeds.
Ellison, who used the cash to bankroll his cocaine habit, pleaded guilty to fraud, which was committed between January 2020 and March 2021, and was locked up for 27 months last September. However, it has now come to light that the 54-year-old had also been growing cannabis in his Whitley Bay home.
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Newcastle Magistrates' Court heard that police discovered 18 plants and 12 seedlings at his address on Ilfracombe Gardens when they were asked by the electricity company to help search the premises on November 30 2020 - two months before he started his fraudulent operation.
Ellison appeared via video link from HMP Northumberland at the court on Thursday, where he pleaded guilty to producing a class B drug. Because he was already serving a lengthy prison sentence, so could not be handed a community order, he was fined £200 and ordered to pay £40 costs and a £34 victim surcharge.
Marc Atkins, prosecuting, said police were asked by an electric company to go with them to Ellison's address as they suspected electricity was being abstracted. Mr Atkins continued: "When officers went in, they found a cannabis farm in the loft area. There were 30 plants in total but 18 were fully grown and the rest were seedlings and not yet established.
"There were also lights and fans in the loft to support the growing operation. The defendant was spoken to and he fully admitted the offence. He said the cannabis was for his own personal use."
The court heard that, other than the fraud conviction, Ellison only had three other offences on his record and they dated back to the 1980s. Matthew Purves, defending, said Ellison had fallen into drug and alcohol misuse following years of being a hard-working, law-abiding citizen. He added: "Over the past few months he has been working with a team in prison and has completed two courses in relation to drugs and alcohol.
"He's used his time wisely in prison and dealt with the problems he had before he ended up going to prison."
