He converted three bedrooms in his house. The decision sent him to jail

Bleu Stean-Tannis’ advocate said his client found taking cannabis was beneficial for his ADHD

A man who was out of prison on licence after committing a serious assault is back behind bars after turning his hand to growing cannabis.

Acting on intelligence police officers went to Bleu Stean-Tannis’ house and found he had converted three bedrooms to the production of the drug on a commercial scale. The defendant’s advocate told Swansea Crown Court his client had initially started growing cannabis to self-medicate his ADHD but it was accepted that “things became bigger than that”.

At the time of the drugs bust Stean-Tannis was out of prison on licence from a five-and-a-half-year sentence imposed for a brutal attack carried out with his cousin which saw the men punching, kicking, and stamping on their victim and leaving him with a collapsed lung, smashed eye socket, and ruptured eardrum.

Caitlin Brazel, prosecuting, told the court that on October 12 last year police executed a search warrant at the defendant’s house in the Mount Pleasant area of Swansea following intelligence reports that he had set up a cannabis cultivation operation.

In the property officers found three of the bedrooms had been dedicated to the growing of cannabis with two of the rooms containing a total of 48 plants at various stages of maturity along with lights and other equipment and the third bedroom showing evidence of a previous harvest.

The court heard police estimated the potential yield of the operation could have been be up to 4kg of the drug worth up to £20,000. For the latest court stories sign up to our crime newsletter.

The prosecutor said when arrested 40-year-old Stean-Tannis said he was “going to go guilty to everything” as he didn’t want to get “stitched up”. He subsequently answered “no comment” to all questions asked in interview.

Bleu Stean-Tannis, formerly of of Cedar Avenue, Gorseinon, but now of Harries Street, Mount Pleasant, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to producing cannabis when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.

He has 21 previous convictions for 37 offences including robbery, using violence to enter premises, battery, breach of a restraining order, possession of bladed articles, and five for the simple possession of cannabis.

In 2021 the defendant was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent for a joint assault carried out with his cousin Michael Gilbert which saw them repeatedly punching, kicking, and stamping on their victim outside his home. The victim sustained a collapsed lung, smashed eye socket, and ruptured eardrum. Stean-Tannis was released on licence from that sentence in 2024.

Dan Griffiths, for Stean-Tannis, said the defendant had ADHD and found the consumption of cannabis to be beneficial.

He said his client had been in receipt of a private prescription for the drug but when the cost became “prohibitive” he turned to growing the drug initially for his own use – though he said it had to be accepted “things became bigger than that” and it progressed to a “modest commercial operation”.

The advocate said Stean-Tannis had responded well to being on licence and it was perhaps a sign of his level of compliance that the decision had been taken not to recall him back to prison following his arrest in October last year.

Judge Paul Thomas KC told Stean-Tannis he would have known the consequences of committing further offences while subject to licence but had ignored that and had decided to set up a commercial-scale cannabis growing operation. The judge noted, however, that the defendant had obviously “impressed” those responsible for his licence as they had not recalled him.

With a one-third discount for his guilty plea Stean-Tannis was sentenced to 32 months in prison. He will serve 40% of the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

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