Mansfield brothers set up cannabis dealing business to pay off drug debts

Police raided Owen Hossack's Bancroft Lane home at 7.45am on January 29, 2021, and found more than half a kilo of the dried class B drug with a potential street value of £5,820.

Deal bags, scales and mobile phones with evidence of dealing were also discovered, said prosecutor Edie Leonard.

At his brother Joseph's address, on Padley Hill, officers found five cannabis plants with a potential yield of £2,500 if sold at street level.

Nottingham Crown Court heard Owen, now aged 21, has no previous convictions, while Joseph, aged 27, was convicted of possessing cannabis with intent to supply in 2016.

They both admitted possession with intent to supply cannabis and Owen also pleaded guilty to producing cannabis, but they have both stayed out of trouble since.

Stefan Fox, mitgating, said Owen got involved to fund his own drug habit but “can't avoid accepting there was a financial advantage.”

The court heard he was "vulnerable and easily influenced" and “he now finds himself in the same position as his brother was in 2016.”

Katie Hodgkinson said Joseph grew the drugs out of “misguided loyalty to help pay off his brother’s debts.”

She said it was a “grave mistake and one he doesn’t intend to repeat,” before adding: “He has put a lot of effort into getting his life on an upward trajectory.”

"He feels dreadful that his parents have been involved in this ," she said. “He never wants to put his mum and dad in this position again.

"At the moment he describes himself as a black sheep and wants to get back into their good graces.”

On Wednesday, Recorder Simon King told Joseph he needed to understand how close he came to receiving a custodial term and warned him not to step out of line again.

He sentenced him to 15 months in jail, suspended for two years, with 200 hours of unpaid work and five rehabilitation days. And he sentenced Owen to a six-month prison term, suspended for 18 months, with 100 hours of unpaid work.

He told them: “You will have no one else to blame if you come back before the courts again.”