TWO Vietnamese nationals paid to prune and water about 600 cannabis plants in a grow house near Daylesford were each sentenced to four years and 10 months' jail on Tuesday.
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Caught with 257 kilograms of cannabis in July, Van Le, 55, and Yen Nguyen, 64, were described as "expendable pawns" in a larger criminal enterprise at a County Court sitting in Ballarat.
The court heard the pair, both on expired tourist visas, responded to an advertisement in a Vietnamese newspaper after fruit picking work across Victoria dried up in 2013.
After being ferried between two secret locations the pair, who had spent most of their time in Sunshine, were dropped of at two houses at Gays Road, Wheatsheaf, and told they would receive $7000 after each crop matured, the court heard.
Crown prosecutor David Cordy said police raided the grow house, filled with "sophisticated hydroponic set ups" on July 7, seizing 592 cannabis plants with a combined weight of 257 kilograms.
The court heard the pair, who pleaded guilty on Tuesday, gave similar explanations during interview, saying they needed to make money to send back to their families in Vietnam.
Marcus Langlois, defence counsel for Le, said his client, who had hepatitis C was looking to make some fast cash to pay for medical costs, was fully aware of the risks involved.
"Mr Le was used as an expendable pawn. He was the one who was taking the risk," he said.
Similarly, Nguyen, from the same province in Vietnam as Le, was drawn in by the allure of "big money", according to his defence lawyer Tim Fitzpatrick.
"The sad irony is he (Nguyen) works 24/7 on a farm tending someone else's cash crop, getting paid a pittance and he does the time," Mr Fitzpatrick said.
In sentencing the pair to four years and 10 months' jail with a non-parole period of two years and six months, judge Duncan Allen said the "tyranny of distance" between the men and their families would make prison tough.
"A message must be sent out to the community that when people are feeling vulnerable, when they're desperate for money to send back to their impoverished family in Vietnam, they must not give into the temptation of working on cannabis crops," he said.