I'm assuming this guy is from Birmingham, but it's not 100 per cent clear from the article. Bit of a change from the usual food deliveries during the pandemic, though
(Edit: The Birmingham Mail's rehash of this includes the words 'skint Birmingham cabbie' in the headline, although that's as specific as it gets.)
Taxi driver supplied food to illegal immigrants locked in cannabis farm
https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hu ... al-5779031
He made fortnightly journeys from Birmingham to deliver the supplies and was paid £250 a time.
Image: Hull Daily Mail
A hard-up taxi driver delivered food supplies to two Vietnamese illegal immigrants locked in a £650,000 cannabis farm inside an industrial unit.
Police working on the drug-busting Operation Galaxy found 1,400 cannabis plants inside the "sophisticated" factory at Carnaby, near Bridlington.
The father-of-five made fortnightly journeys from Birmingham to deliver the supplies and was paid £250 a time.
Gullam Miah, 54, admitted being involved in producing cannabis on September 13 last year.
At an earlier hearing before Hull Crown Court, the two Vietnamese "gardeners", Phuc Nguyen, 25, and Dihn Nguyen, 28, of no fixed address, were each jailed for 18 months.
Nigel Clive, prosecuting, said that it was a large-scale operation and the two men were inside to water the plants.
The site was surrounded by a large metal fence and was secured by a padlock to a gate.
Miah was stopped in a car not far away from the industrial unit at about the same time as the police raids began.
He had frozen food for the Vietnamese men, fertiliser and a large gas bottle. He had a key that fitted the security gate.
"The defendant maintained he was simply delivering frozen food and knew nothing of the cannabis," said Mr Clive.
Miah had clearly been given a "position of trust" within the operation.
"There was food for the workers, food for the plants and he had been trusted with the keys to the operation," added Mr Clive.
"He had a form of management function within the hierarchy chain.
"He must have had some awareness and understanding of the scale of the operation
"It must have generated quite a smell. His reward would have been greater than that of the two co-accused."
Ayoub Khan, mitigating, said that Miah had a key to the gates but not to the unit inside.
He claimed that, when he arrived, he would telephone his contact in Birmingham, who would ring the gardeners to open up the premises and allow Miah to reverse his car into the compound.
He was a private hire driver and had no previous convictions.
He was given food for the gardeners and items that would help in growing cannabis.
"There was no management of the premises," said Mr Khan.
"He was receiving £250 per trip."
Miah, born in this country but of Bangladesh heritage, did this for about three months, essentially as a courier.
He had a gambling addiction and became involved in the cannabis operation after talking to somebody in a bookmakers.
He found himself in a desperate financial state after a shortage of private hire work because of the pandemic. He had a mortgage.
"He did what he did in order to make ends meet," said Mr Khan.
"It was a stupid and foolish mistake. This was a very sophisticated operation.
"He had very little awareness or understanding of the scale of the operation.
"He was a small pawn in this enormous operation."
Recorder Peter Makepeace QC said: "You were motivated by significant financial advantage. You were in receipt of £250 per trip.
"There is no way anybody would pay someone £250 simply to deliver food."
"There would be no need for the premises to be padlocked unless there was a "valuable harvest" to protect.
"You were fully aware of the involvement and need for gardeners," said Recorder Makepeace.
"You don't need that involvement unless it's a large and sophisticated operation.
"You must have had the trust of those higher up the chain to have possession of that key. It was not in the possession of the gardeners.
"It was a calculated cost-benefit analysis by you to support this operation."
Miah was jailed for two years.
