Hayling dad comes clean to police over cannabis factory

Dean Kellogg, 47, was not under investigation at the time, but took it upon himself to confess.

Recorder John Trevaskis said Kellogg’s actions in alerting police were ‘unique’ in his experience and do him ‘great credit’.

Kellogg was given a two-year suspended sentence and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work after he admitted producing cannabis.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard that Kellogg, of Eastwood Close Hayling Island, was approached and asked to grow the class B drug after getting into debt totalling more than £40,000.

He set up the cannabis factory in the loft at his home.

But then Kellogg took it upon himself to turn up 
at Waterlooville police 
station and explain what he had done.

On searching the property, officers found 24 cannabis plants and associated growing equipment, and 95 cuttings.

Experts have said the drugs had a street value of between £33,000 and £99,000.

The court heard that American-born Kellogg is unable to work as he has an appeal against his deportation pending, and that he is the primary carer for his wife who is ill.

Tim Sparkes, defending, said Kellogg is ‘extremely remorseful’.

He said: ‘This is a situation where Mr Kellogg was essentially approached by others saying “we will tell you how to set it (the cannabis factory) up, we will provide you with the cuttings, we will tell you where to go to buy the equipment, we will then take the harvest off you for an agreed amount that we set.’

Mr Sparkes added: ‘He takes an option which, without it, the police would not have found out about the operation, by attending the police station and making a full and frank admission from the very outset.’

Addressing Kellogg, Recorder Trevaskis said: ‘The circumstances in which this offence became known to the authorities are in my experience unique.

‘I am sure they are not unique in the wider experience but for someone in your position and involved in an activity that you were involved in, to go to the police station and effectively hand yourself in is certainly an unusual situation.

‘It goes beyond the situation of someone who is, if you like, caught red-handed and then is fully and frankly co-operative with the police in their investigation thereafter.

‘You initiated the investigation and you have in effect closed yourself down.’

The drugs and equipment are to be forfeited and destroyed.