A Scots foster mum who has cared for more than 400 children avoided jail after being caught with a £6000 cannabis farm in her garage.
Elizabeth Marshall began growing ten drug plants for her personal use in what her lawyer described as “lockdown madness”.
The 62-year-old appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday for sentencing after the case was deferred for reports.
Sheriff Adrian Fraser told Marshall: “This offence would normally attract a sentence of imprisonment.”
But the sheriff said he was taking into account her status as a first offender and her previous “good character”.
Marshall was ordered to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work. She had previously pled guilty to a charge of producing cannabis.
The court heard last month how Marshall set up a hydroponic system to grow the Class B drug next to her home in Penicuik, Midlothian.
She was snared after a blaze broke out in her garage and the cannabis plants were discovered inside.
At Friday’s hearing, defence agent Murray Robertson said it was “something of an odd case” but his client accepted it was “serious”.
Mr Robertson said Marshall had immediately resigned from her job as a foster carer with Midlothian Council after the drug bust.
Sheriff Fraser told Marshall: “The charge is a serious one.
“It’s made more serious by your occupation at the time and the trust placed in with regards to your occupation.”
But the sheriff said Marshall had shown “remorse and regret”, had no previous convictions, and cared for her elderly mother.
At last month’s hearing, fiscal depute Sanah Idrees told how police were called by firefighters at around 4.20pm on October 17 last year.
Ms Idrees said officers the plants were found in a “large tent” in Marshall’s garage, and the growing equipment included air filters, fans, lights, and a water pump.
The prosecutor said the cultivation was valued at up to £6000.
Mr Robertson said Marshall had been a foster carer for more than three decades and had fostered “in excess of 400 children”.
He said: “As a young lady, she had dabbled to a degree with smoking marijuana.”
The solicitor said Marshall succumbed to “lockdown madness” and took to smoking cannabis in the way that others coped with “wine or food”.
He said: “She entered into this “experiment” as she called it, and it seems she was quite good at it.”
Mr Robertson said the “sophisticated set-up” was put in place after Marshall bought £1000 of hydroponic equipment over the internet.
She believed the “yield” from the plants would “last at least 12 months”.
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