Judge’s fury at guidelines ‘that stop him jailing cannabis farmer’ despite local epidemic

A judge has criticised new sentencing guidelines which he said left him with no choice but to free a man who had grown thousands of pounds worth of cannabis.

Judge Michael Murphy told 33-year-old Craig Cupit that if he had appeared before him a few months ago he would have been jailed.

Instead, despite the discovery of eight cannabis plants capable of producing £8,960 worth of the drug in the tattooed bodybuilder’s cellar, he said he had no choice but to give him a community penalty.