Set fire to confisacted house

A judge says he hopes a cannabis grower who burned down a house about to be confiscated from him has put his criminal ways behind him.

“I hope you are finding ways to spend your time that are lawful and constructive,” Judge Lance Rowe told Kenneth William Earnest Carrington in the Palmerston North District Court on Thursday.

Carrington was there to be sentenced for arson, after burning down a Woodville property in February 2017. He was found guilty of the arson by the same judge at a trial in March.

Carrington is a convicted cannabis grower, having served home detention for cultivating and possessing the drug for supply.

Police launched an investigation into potential proceeds of Carrington’s crimes and managed to get a forfeit order for a property on the outskirts of Woodville, where he grew cannabis.

Carrington moved to Gisborne after forfeiting the house, but returned to Woodville on the day of the arson. His ute was seen in the driveway of his former property soon before it was set alight.

He was sentenced to six months’ community detention and ordered to pay $9715 in fines and reparation.