A group of men who diverted electricity to supply cannabis farms run by organised crime gangs have been jailed for more than 28 years.
The men ran a sophisticated operation under cover of being a legitimate company, digging up roads to repair utilities.
They spliced electricity mains up and down the country to divert the supply to houses, warehouses and disused shops where cannabis was being grown on an industrial scale.
The farms were run by organised crime gangs, some from Albania.
The operation first came to light when police in Bangor, North Wales, executed a search warrant at an empty shop in the town.
They discovered 1,000 cannabis plants under cultivation and that electricity was being illegally diverted into the premises.
The investigation passed to the Northwest Regional Organised Crime Unit who traced the registration number of a van seen at the property in Bangor to a company called Elev8 Civils and Utilities Ltd. which was based in Wigan and Liverpool.
The nature of Elev8 Civils & Utilities Ltd. business is given as “Construction of water projects” on the Companies House website.
The investigation into Elev8 Civils and Utilities Ltd led them to eight of the ten men involved. They were either directors of the company and or had worked for it.
Ross McGinn and Andrew Roberts were the two directors of the company. Graham Roberts, Greg Black, Michael Ashurst, Lewin Charles, Aiden Doran and Jack Sherry had all “worked” for the company at some stage.
The Crown Prosecution Service’s case against the men spanned a period of three years and encompassed 54 instances were the gang had illegally diverted electricity to cannabis farms up and down the country.
The group communicated about “work” via the social media site WhatsApp.
The roles in the gang
Ross McGinn, 33, of Midway Road, Huyton, Merseyside, was the facilitator for the works, arranging and directing the other Organised Crime Gang members to the illegal digs, as well as travelling to some of the works himself.
Andrew Roberts, 42, of Bell Lane, Wigan, was the other of the two company directors for Elev8 and also facilitated the works and directed the organised gangs to the digs. Andrew Roberts had previously owned an electrical company and makes references in the messages to being able to joint cables.
Graham Roberts, 47, of Ryton Close Wigan, was known as “Ganny” and was the skilled worker of the company. He was a cable jointer by trade and an integral part of the operation. He did the physical fitting of new electric cables from the mains power to the various premises.
Greg Black, 28, of Brookwood Road, Huyton, had a supervisory role and was involved in illegal jointing.
Michael Ashurst, 34, of Saddleback Road, Wigan, Lewin Charles, 22, Stanhope Drive, Roby, Merseyside, Aiden Doran, 27, of Ormskirk Road, Wigan and Jack Sherry, 20, Keats Avenue, Wigan were groundsmen and responsible for exposing the cable to be jointed, before filling and/or tarmacking the holes to make the work appear legitimate.
Colin White, 32, of Warnerville Road, Liverpool was employed by Scottish Power Energy Networks as a jointers mate which allowed him unsupervised access to equipment essential when cutting into cables. Other conspirators refer to visiting “Col” for equipment such as resin or cable.
Luke Whenary, 33, of Felton Lane, Stockton on Tees did not work for the company, but evidence showed that he was in regular contact with the conspirators, liaised with other organised crime groups, and arranged for the conspirators to divert the electricity at the shop in Bangor, North Wales.
Over the period of the investigation, the gang illegally extracted £253,980 worth of electricity which enabled the production at the 54 sites investigated of cannabis worth around £7 million.
Property from Scottish Power found in Colin White’s home in Wigan and at another premises in the town totalled £5,093.86
On 10 October 2024, at Liverpool Crown Court, Ross McGinn and Andrew Roberts pleaded guilty to Encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence believing it to be in contravention of S45 of the Serious Crime Act, conspiring to steal and conspiring to abstract electricity.
Graham Roberts, Greg Black, Michael Ashurst, Lewin Charles, Aiden Doran, Luke Whenary and Jack Sherry pleaded guilty to Encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence believing it to be in contravention of S45 of the Serious Crime Act and conspiring to abstract electricity.
Over two days at Liverpool Crown Court (6 and 7 March 2025) eight of the men were sentenced to a total of more than 28 years in jail. Michael Ashurst and Luke Whenary will be sentenced at a later date.
James Allison, Senior Crown Prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service’s Mersey-Cheshire’s Complex Casework Unit, said: “These men were involved in helping organised crime gangs to produce cannabis by cutting into the electricity mains to provide the supply to various premises.
“They used a legitimate company as cover and pretended to be contractor’s working on utilities. They were a vital part in assisting organised crime to set up large numbers of cannabis farms all over UK.
“The pretence of being genuine workmen digging up the road and repairing utilities was the perfect disguise.
“But they were working with and for Albanian nationals and other gangs to assist with the setup of cannabis farms by interfering with the mains electricity to power the farms.
“The term ‘professional enablers’ for organised crime describes their involvement.
“The work they did to divert the electricity was described by a professional electrical inspector as poor and often dangerous.
“They no doubt thought they would get away with their criminal operation but they were wrong and are now behind bars.”
Sentences
ROSS McGINN
5 YEARS 4 MONTHS’ IMPRISONMENT
ANDREW ROBERTS
6 YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT
SERIOUS CRIME PREVENTION ORDERS WERE APPLIED FOR BY THE CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE AGAINST ROSS MCGINN AND ANDREW ROBERTS AND WERE GRANTED BY THE COURT, ISSUED FOR 3 YEARS.
GRAHAM ROBERTS
5 YEARS 3 MONTHS’ IMPRISONMENT
GREG BLACK
3 YEARS 9 MONTHS’ IMPRISONMENT
LEWIN CHARLES
2 YEARS 8 MONTHS’ IMPRISONMENT
AIDAN DORAN
3 YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT
JACK SHERRY
1 YEAR 10 MONTHS’ DETENTION AND TRAINING ORDER, SUSPENDED FOR 18 MONTHS AND 100 HOURS UNPAID WORK TO BE COMPLETED WITHIN 12 MONTHS
COLIN WHITE
2 YEARS 6 MONTHS’ IMPRISONMENT
