Pubdate: Thu, 23 May 2013
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2013 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Daryl Slade

SENIORS' HOME MAY BE SEIZED

A Calgary woman who pleaded guilty more than two years ago to 
possessing a small marijuana grow operation in her southeast Calgary 
home is now fighting the government's application to seize her 
property as proceeds of crime.

Heng Kiet Kouch, 65, who lives in the home with her 88-year-old 
mother, has conceded that her home was used to cultivate marijuana 
but is asking Court of Queen's Bench Justice Carolyn Phillips through 
her lawyer Alain Hepner to use her discretion to refuse the order for 
forfeiture.

Court heard that police issued a warrant on the Applewood home on 
June 13, 2010, and found 128 plants in the basement - 74 starter 
plants and 54 second-stage plants, but none were ready to harvest.

Kouch pleaded guilty to the criminal charge within six months of the 
execution of the warrant and was handed a conditional sentence order 
to be served in the community.

Three months later, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General for 
Alberta filed a restraint order to seize the property under the 
Victims Restitution and Compensation Payment Act.

Because of the damage caused by the moisture and heat from the 
hydroponic grow operation, it took some $30,000 to restore the 
single-family house so that it was inhabitable again.

However, according to court documents, its market value is probably 
somewhat lower than the City of Calgary's 2013 assessment of $238,000.

Staff Sgt. Tom Hanson of the Calgary Police Service's drug unit 
testified during the first day of the hearing on Wednesday that civil 
forfeiture is one of the policy strategies for police to help clean 
up illegal drug production.

"We've found through our investigations and through our source 
information that it is a very significant deterrent to the people 
that are involved in this type of business," Hanson told Alberta 
Justice lawyer Cynthia Hykaway.

Hanson said such grow ops in houses in residential communities are 
the most common and are difficult to detect. He said this one is 
considered a relatively small operation.

"We believe it's because they can hide it in pretty much plain site, 
they rely on the anonymity of a residential neighbourhood where 
people, for the most part, respect everybody else's privacy," said Hanson.

"They can come and go pretty much undetected by arriving and entering 
at an attached garage and making their way into the resident, and 
exiting the same way and not be generally seen."

He said when an operation has reached all stages, including the third 
harvest stage, a lucrative crop could potentially be harvested every 
month. Hanson noted, though, that this operation had not yet reached 
the valuable final stage.

Const. John Hindley, who executed the warrant in June 2010 after the 
TAC team first entered, said the only person at home was the owner's 
elderly mother.

He said he went into the basement and counted the plants in two 
separate rooms according to their stages of growth.

Hanson said he could not estimate how many marijuana grow operations 
there are in Calgary as the team of officers does not have sufficient 
manpower and resources to thoroughly investigate every one of them.

However, he did say it is a significant problem, even after search 
and seizure, as homes are often left empty and become derelict.

Hykaway, who said she has dealt with only four such seizures in fives 
years since the government started to do so, closed her case at the 
end of the day.

The case was adjourned to June 14 when Hepner will call witnesses for 
the defence.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom