A successful estate agent who earned £85,000 a year at the age of 30 and hoped to be made a partner has been jailed for 27 months after running a cannabis farm.
Jordan McDonald has been brought down because of his long-term addiction to the drug.
He worked for Next Home in Perth, Scotland.
When police swooped on a secluded cottage hidden in woodland, they found a sizeable cannabis farm which McDonald had started with an accomplice, Justin Hughes.
A court heard that the pair had started the illegal venture together in a bid to feed the habit that had blighted their lives since childhood.
The ‘professional’ cannabis farm was so big that extra police officers had to be drafted in to catalogue everything found.
In all, there were 62 ‘useable’ plants within the property, with an illicit value somewhere between £9,920 and £29,760, together with small quantities of herbal cannabis worth a few hundred pounds.
Advocate Ronnie Renucci, for McDonald, said his client had been forced to resign from his employment – where he had had hopes of partnership – as a result of his arrest.
He had found new employment helping young people into work – a job with a £50,000 salary which may now be lost.
“Mr McDonald has a first-class employment record and has long held down a well-paid and responsible position,” he said.
“For the past 15 years, however, he has also battled a cannabis addiction and at this time his drug use was escalating rapidly, playing a bigger and bigger part in his life.”
McDonald and Hughes both admitted producing cannabis.
Directors at Next Home declined to comment on McDonald’s conviction.
Here is the local paper report
A Scottish estate agent running a drug farm?…. sounds to me like it was a "canny business"
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Love the title 'High-flying'
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I've heard of referrals but this takes the space cake.
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I also wonder if his competitors sent the report out on twitter #hash
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