By Brendan Rees
A pair of uni drop outs have been sentenced to jail for their part in an elaborate drugs supply operation at a Narre Warren home.
Toan Vu, 23, was sentenced to two years and six months in jail while Son Pham, 29, was sentenced to 12 months’ jail after both pleaded guilty to cultivating a narcotic plant at the Victorian County Court sitting on 19 August.
In his sentencing remarks Judge George Georgiou said while the roles they had “performed was at a low level it was still, an important role and one which must be denounced”.
The court heard police uncovered the “sophisticated” cannabis set-up after swooping at a Wood Road home in Narre Warren just before noon on 12 August, 2019.
Officers initially knocked on the front door but when no one answered they activated their siren and spooked the pair, causing them to run through the garage along with a third man.
All three were arrested before police raided the home, seizing almost 200 cannabis plants including seven garbage bags full of dried cannabis buds totalling more than 136kg, the court heard.
Police also found lamps and ballasts, two fluorescent lamps, carbon exhaust fans, water pumps, electrical transformers and an electrical bypass controlled by timing devices.
Investigators interviewed the duo through a Vietnamese interpreter where Pham told police he had been living with Vu for two months and at the time of his arrest had been cutting plants for about 10 hours for a payment between $500 and $1000 over two days, the court was told.
Vu told police he met a person at Springvale shops who offered him work cutting plants for a payment of $1000 as he struggled on his savings of $150 a week.
The court heard Vu and Pham, who came to Australia from poor families in Vietnam in 2015 and 2014 respectively, had met at a Victorian poultry company where they had worked.
After struggling with his studies Vu dropped out of his English and business courses before his higher education visa was cancelled in December 2018.
However, three months later he was granted a bridging visa but at the time of his offending was unemployed and in a “desperate, emotional and financial state”, the court heard.
Pham, who was also struggling for cash and keeping up with his uni fees, had his student visa cancelled without him knowing, the court was told.
Judge Georgiou said the duo, who had no prior convictions, were not involved in the set-up of the crop and told them he accepted “neither of you entered the country to commit crimes to which you pleaded guilty to”.
When sentencing Judge Georgiou took into consideration the pairs youth, that their pleas of guilt were “indicative of some remorse”, and their prospects of rehabilitation was “at least good”.
But he noted the charges were “serious given the quantity involved and the sophisticated nature of the operation.”
The court also heard the pair would be placed in immigration detention after jail.
