A Surrey man was sentenced to 15 months in jail Tuesday after he was found with more than 1,500 marijuana plants on a property in the Ness Lake area 19 months ago.
Thai Hong Vu, 38, was also issued a 10-year firearms prohibition after pleading guilty to production of a controlled substance in relation to the March 4, 2010 incident, when police were granted a search warrant for a property in the 9400 block of Edna Road.
In all, police found a total
of 1,518 plants in various stages of development in a barn and in a house on the property. They were estimated to yield 284 pounds of marijuana with a street value of $569,000 to $1.26 million.
The grow-op consisted of 44 high-pressure sodium bulbs and 10 new bulbs were found in boxes, the court was told. There were also numerous timers, fans, blowers, transformers, air conditioners and a weigh scale, and further investigation uncovered a hydro bypass.
Vu and his wife, Lillian Tran, gave themselves up voluntarily when police showed up. Charges against Tran, who is now pregnant, were stayed.
Vu, who has no previous criminal record, was born in Vietnam and has been living in Canada since 1986 and has a Grade 10 education.
The father of four children from a previous marriage, Vu has worked for a countertop installation business in Surrey for the past year-and-a-half. Police identified the couple as living in Surrey at the time of their arrest on the property.
The sentence, passed by provincial court judge Ron Tindale , was in accordance with a joint submission from Crown prosecution and defense counsels.
"The circumstances are quite simple and all too familiar for this part of British Columbia," Tindale said.
