Cannabis cafe owner walks free

Mr Ward's intention was to set up an advice centre

A man who set up a Dutch-style cannabis cafe has walked free from court.

The judge at Bournemouth Crown Court accepted Jimmy Ward's claim that he did not know his customers would smoke the drug on his premises in the Dorset town.

Mr Ward said that signs around the cafe, which opened on 1 April 2002, instructed customers not to smoke the illegal drug.

He received a nine month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to allowing the premises to be used for taking cannabis on the basis that he did not know the drug was being smoked there.

Management lessons

During the trial, the court was shown a TV documentary in which Mr Ward took lessons in cannabis cafe management.

Mr Ward was filmed by a BBC film crew as he travelled to The Netherlands to learn how to run a Dutch-style cafe.

By lunchtime on the opening day of the cafe, the former warehouse was full of people openly rolling and smoking cannabis joints.

Campaigners want cannabis legalised

But when police raided the site Mr Ward said signs saying "the smoking of cannabis is not permitted" showed he was not allowing the use of the drug.

Les Smith, defending, said Mr Ward admitted he may have been naive in assuming people would obey the signs.

Mr Smith said: "He wanted to be ready for the legalisation of the drug so he could be a front runner in the cannabis movement but in doing so he put himself at risk of going farther than the law.

"His intention was to set up an information and advice centre, not a cannabis cafe."