Shed at Lavington business was turned into secret cannabis crop operation

The 74 plants were discovered after paramedics attended to James Andrew Wynd for a severe "mental health episode"'.

When he was taken away by ambulance from his Dallinger Road business Elite Medical Supplies, NSW Fire and Rescue went inside, discovered the crop and called police.

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Magistrate Richard Funston initially told Wynd and his partner, Roxanne Marie Sutherland, on Monday that "this is pretty serious offending, it's crossing the threshold" for custody.

But he and prosecutor Sergeant Andrew Pike were swayed by a detailed submission from defence lawyer Samantha Mason, who said the cannabis was grown to extract compounds used to alleviate their conditions.

Wynd was a paramedic of several decades' experience who had spent many years, much of it overseas, training others in the profession.

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During that time, especially in Africa, she said, he had witnessed horrific events that left him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Sutherland, she said, had a complex, longstanding medical condition for which the cannabis extract provided relief.

Wynd's large commercial shed had multiple rooms and a mezzanine level.

He had not opened the site to the public since 2018 and began growing cannabis the following year.

Wynd made his triple zero on December 15 about 2.30pm.

The plants ranged from 20 centimetres to 1.5 metres. Police also found 4.6 grams of cannabis seeds and 185 grams of cannabis leaf, plus gel blasters used with his son.

Wynd told police of a further 583 grams of cannabis stored in a freezer.

Wynd, 44, pleaded guilty to cannabis cultivation and possession charges and possessing unauthorised, prohibited firearms and Sutherland, 40, to cultivate and possession charges.

Each was convicted and placed on an 18-month community corrections order.

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