Disabled Mansfield man found growing cannabis after police entered his garden looking for missing person

Officers went to the home of Richard Anthony Yates, in Bentinck Street on September 8 last year and asked if they could search his garden, Mansfield Magistrates’ Court was told.

Once on the property they became aware of a strong smell of cannabis and found four plants growing in a small greenhouse, said Robert Carr, prosecuting.

“He was in a serious car accident about five years ago and had started using cannabis,” he said.

Yates, 40, who now walks with the aid of crutches, admitted producing cannabis when he appeared before the court on Thursday, January 23.

Mitigating, Rebecca Williams said that he had started to grow the drug to help with pain relief after he was refused cannabinoid medication by his GP.

She said: “He also suffers from Asperger’s and used to manage this by going to the gym for about three-and-a-half hours every day but he can’t do that anymore and became very depressed.

“He was also unhappy going to street dealers, so he started to grow his own. It’s not the psychoactive impact he’s interested in, it’s the pain relief and it’s difficult for me to fathom why the police have not dealt with this by way of a caution.

“He let the police in to assist them in looking for a missing person.”

Yates was given a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay a £21 victim surcharge.