By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A father of nine has been jailed after growing 170 cannabis plants in his family home during Covid financial stress.
Vien Van Ky, 50, of Keysborough, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to cultivating a commercial quantity of cannabis as well as stealing electricity.
In a police raid in October 2021, officers found Ky’s garage was converted into four hydroponic-growing rooms.
They seized plants weighing about 19 kilograms, as well as dried marijuana inside the house.
Ky told police that he sold 100 gram bags for $2000 – which was enough to buy food and pay bills.
He spent $1000 on an electrical bypass for the grow rooms because he couldn’t afford another $7000 power bill, he told them.
He also claimed he didn’t know cannabis cultivation was illegal – despite previously going to jail for the same offence.
Ky’s wife was charged with possessing cannabis simpliciter for turning a blind eye to his drug cultivation.
She was remanded for 132 days until granted bail. Ultimately she was sentenced to a two-year good behaviour bond.
In sentencing Ky, Judge Frances Hogan noted that he was mainly motivated by his family’s financial stress during Covid lockdown.
It was a serious offence, a “seriously misguided thing to do” and a “bad example to your children”, Judge Hogan said.
But “less morally repugnant” than being motivated by greed.
The disability pensioner had a long criminal history since suffering a brain injury as a passenger in a high-speed motorbike crash in 1995.
He’d been diagnosed with schizophrenia, which was likely worsened by illicit drugs.
Given his drug abuse, psychologists were unable to strongly connect Ky’s brain injury and his offending.
Since the crash, he’d been convicted for drug trafficking, cultivation, property damage, assaults and driving and weapon offences.
It was a “great shame” that he’d wasted his skills by growing cannabis but had not worked for the past 25 years, the judge said.
Judge Hogan noted his “less than optimistic” rehabilitation prospects due to his “complete” lack of insight, not sticking to anti-psychotic medication, his drug habit and memory deficits.
He was at high risk of relapse and attempted suicide in prison where he couldn’t be compelled to take medication, the judge stated.
The only suitable sentence was jail with parole to support Ky’s rehabilitation in the community, she said.
Ky was jailed for up to two years and seven months, and eligible for parole after 21 months.
His term included 594 days in pre-sentence detention.
