THREE men, including one from Gunnislake, were sentenced at Truro Crown Court on Friday, May 26, following an investigation into cannabis production at five premises in Liskeard and Looe.

Jon Stentiford, aged 45 from Liskeard, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, Bradley Sleep, aged 31 of Drakewalls, Gunnislake, was sentenced to four years and Gary Burchell, aged 55 of Tideford, was sentenced to two and a half years, after all three had previously pleaded guilty in conspiracy to produce cannabis.

Stentiford was also sentenced to 18 months imprisonment to be served consecutively to the four years when a previous suspended sentence was activated.

In addition, James Prowse and Alexander Nicholls were both sentenced to two years, suspended for two years, and Kevin Elkin was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, for their part in the conspiracy and Rachel Liddicott was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, for an offence of money laundering.

Julie-Anne Painter, aged 44, was found guilty by a jury following a trial at Truro Crown Court on May 18 and will be sentenced for her part in this conspiracy tomorrow (Friday, June 2).

This large-scale investigation began on Friday, October 16 2015 when police carried out a series of raids at five premises in Liskeard and a property in Looe. Officers recovered 229 cannabis plants from the premises. The court heard the plants were found in ‘grow tents’ with identical growing methods and featured identical electrical and physical items.

Police said the recovered plants had been estimated at between £20,000 and £160,000. In addition, 1,224 grams of recently harvested cannabis was seized from a van leaving one of the houses. The street value of this seizure was estimated at £12,240.

A further 500 grams of cannabis, with a street value of £5,000, was recovered from one of the addresses.

Detective Sergeant Tim Wright said: ‘The full benefit of this conspiracy has been estimated to be as much as £400,000 over the period that the cannabis was being grown.

‘All of the locations were rented and the organisers used the names of innocent local people when renting some of the premises. Rents, council tax and significant electricity bills were paid by the criminals showing the organised and lucrative nature of this criminal organisation.

‘We welcome the sentence following this tenacious invest-igation.’