Scots foster mum who cared for 400 kids caught with £6k cannabis farm in garage after fire

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Scots foster carer who has looked after more than 400 children was caught with a £6000 cannabis farm in her garage. Elizabeth Marshall started growing ten plants for her personal use in what her lawyer described as “lockdown madness”.The 62-year-old set up the hydroponic system to grow the Class B drug and a court heard she became “quite good at it”.

But her cultivation was busted after a blaze broke out nearby and firefighters checked the garage next to her Midlothian home.

Marshall, who had been a foster carer for 33 years, immediately resigned from the role with the local authority following her arrest.

She appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wednesday and pled guilty to a charge of producing cannabis. Fiscal depute Sanah Idrees said police were called by firefighters at around 4.20pm on October 17 last year.Ms Idress said officers were told a fire had broken out near a garage in Penicuik and cannabis plants had been discovered inside.The plants were in a “large tent”, she said, and the growing equipment included air filters, fans, lights, and a water pump.Marshall was arrested, the court was told, and made no reply during her interview.The prosecutor said the cultivation was valued at up to £6000.Defence agent Murray Robertson said his client had “never been in any form of trouble in her life”.Mr Robertson said Marshall had been a foster carer for more than three decades with Midlothian Council 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