By VICTORIA STONE-MEADOWS
A BELGRAVE man has been sentenced to six years in prison with a non-parole period of four years for drug related offences.
Geoffrey Barnard was charged with cultivation of a large commercial quantity of a drug of dependence and possession of a drug of dependence.
Barnard appeared in the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday 2 February where Judge Montgomery handed down the sentence.
Croydon Divisional Tasking Unit raided properties in Belgrave, Ferntree Gully, Boronia and Bayswater that contained commercial quantities of cannabis in August last year.
During the raids, police seized over 2000 cannabis plants and seedlings from the three warehouses as well as from Barnard’s home in Belgrave.
Police also located sophisticated hydroponic operations in the warehouses along with a sophisticated cannabis oil extraction process at the warehouse on Dorset Road in Ferntree Gully.
Judge Montgomery said that if Barnard had not pleaded guilty, he would have sentenced him to a period of imprisonment of eight years with a non-parole period of six years.
