Pot grower gets 16 months

By Sarah Sacheli, The Windsor Star

A man who operated a marijuana grow house on Norman Street was sentenced Monday to 16 months in jail.

Files: Windsor police display marijuana seized from a grow-op in Windsor at police headquarters on October 14, 2011.

Nghia Hong Phan, 56, pleaded guilty in April to production of cannabis and theft of electricity.

As part of the plea bargain, a charge of possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking was withdrawn. Phan was at the Norman Street home when police raided the building in April 2011. Inside, officers found 242 plants between three and four feet high. Police estimate the plants would have yielded 54 pounds of marijuana.

Court heard Phan works at a pizzeria. He was born in Vietnam and became a Canadian citizen in 1985.

In 2006, he was convicted of running a grow-op in Brampton. In that case, he was sentenced to one year of house arrest.

Read the full story by Sarah Sacheli of  the Windsor Star.