The County Court sentenced the offender to 300 days' imprisonment (time already served) for cultivation of cannabis simpliciter after a jury acquitted on the commercial quantity charge at retrial. The Court held that the 483 days already served in custody (300 attributable to the cultivation charge, 183 to a completed theft sentence) adequately met all sentencing purposes, given the combination of an early guilty plea to the lesser charge, nearly five years of delay including a successful appeal and retrial, excellent rehabilitation prospects, loss of the Worboyes COVID-era discount through no fault of the offender, and loss of the benefit of concurrency on the theft sentence. The case illustrates how cumulative mitigating factors — particularly extensive delay and time already served — can result in a time-served sentence even for a sophisticated, sole-operator cannabis cultivation involving 72 plants and 73.72 kilograms.
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