Girl tattles about dad's cannabis plantation at after-school care

Paul van N. from Hengelo was sentenced to 80 hours of community service on Friday for illegal cannabis cultivation. A cannabis plantation with 450 cuttings was found in his home after his daughter spoke about her daddy's "green plants in the attic" at after-school care, AD reports.

"My dad has green plants in the attic", the girl said with what can only be described as childhood innocence at a Kids Villa group in Hengelo.

The childcare facility contacted the police, who first checked with the girls mother if her ex may be a cannabis grower. The woman agreed that it was possible, so the police took heat measurements and noticed that Van N.'s attic is warmer than his neighbors. The police eventually found a "green sea" of cannabis cuttings in his attic.

Van N. immediately admitted that they were his cuttings. The relationship with his daughter's mother had just ended and he was having a hard time, also financially, he said in court. "I was sitting on boxes. And then my car broke too." He only sold the cannabis. He didn't use it, he said to the court and Prosecutor.

He experimented with a mother plant in his garden and made cuttings. He learned how to do that online. "The whole internet is full of it." The equipment he bought from Gamma and Marktplaats. And the electricity he used was legal and paid for - unusual for an illegal cannabis cultivation case.

The court sentenced Van N. to 80 hours of community service and a conditionally suspended prison sentence of one month.