Oanh Tran, 49, pleaded guilty in the Shepparton County Court to cultivating a commercial quantity of cannabis.
The court heard police found 325 cannabis plants of various sizes when they raided a Tallygaroopna house on November 2 last year.
The plants, with a total weight of 170kg, were being grown in six rooms of the house.
Judge Michael Bourke said Tran’s connection to the house was that she had been a “crop sitter” for four days and she was at the house when the police raided it.
He noted she had come to Australia in January 2022 from Vietnam, where she lived, on a tourist visa to visit her daughter in Sydney.
The start of COVID-19 lockdowns essentially forced Tran to remain in Australia.
Judge Bourke said Tran met a person in Melbourne who offered her the job crop sitting, which she accepted “in desperate financial circumstances brought about by the onset of COVID”.
Ordinarily, the mother of two is a shopkeeper in Vietnam.
Judge Bourke sentenced Tran to 15 months in prison, with a non-parole period of five months.
He ordered that the four days spent in pre-sentence detention be counted as time already served.
When she is released from jail on parole, Tran will be deported back to Vietnam.
“This will mean the loss of connection with your daughter and granddaughter (in Australia) for some years,” Judge Bourke said.
The judge said he had taken this into account when he sentenced her to what he described as a “more merciful sentence” with a minimum term shorter than normal to be served.
He also noted that if she had not pleaded guilty he would have sentenced her to two years and nine months in prison, with 16 months to be served before being eligible for parole.
22°C