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A mother of three who was caught dismantling her boyfriend’s cannabis farm claimed she did not know it was in his guest room.
Danielle Sabatini ran downstairs with cannabis clinging to her pants when police arrived at her family’s West Derby home.
Officers had previously arrested his partner Ross Bracken, who was driving high on cocaine with £ 1,340 in cash in his car.
Bracken, 36, said he was growing the crop to pay for stem cell treatment for his 16-year-old son, who has epilepsy.
He was locked up after he also collided with a couple’s car, causing serious injuries, during a 130 mph freeway chase.
But Sabatini, 34, was saved from jail after a judge learned that she was now taking care of her children alone during the confinement.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that officers saw Bracken driving a Volkswagen Golf at “high speed” on Oak Lane North in Croxteth, around 12:40 pm, on August 30 last year.
They stopped him on Pinewood Avenue and found him “fidgety” next to cash and a Nokia phone on the center console.
Louise Santamera, a prosecutor, said “extremely nervous” Bracken tested positive for cocaine in a road test.
He later agreed to provide blood for testing, but complained to a nurse that it hurt and withdrew consent, condemning him for not providing a sample.
He told officers that he lived with his partner and that any drugs in his home were his, before declining to provide the Nokia PIN.
(Image: Liverpool Echo)
He later claimed that the £ 1,340 was money he borrowed from his brother to buy birthday gifts for his partner and daughter.
Santamera said police went to his home in Tewkesbury Close and discovered “the remains of a cannabis farm.”
She said: “The front door was open and there were noises coming from inside. Officers could hear screams and muffled voices.
“Then Danielle Sabatini was seen running down the stairs with cannabis stuck to her pants and she appeared to be very nervous.
“Two others who were present were also arrested, but they were not charged, it was his mother and a friend of the family.”
There were a plethora of ‘smell proof bags’ and 139g of cannabis, with an estimated street value between £ 1,386 and £ 2,075.
Sabatini said Bracken had exclusive access to the room where the farm was located, but suspected he was smoking cannabis there.
Santamera said: “He claimed that when he did not return home he found the key to the room, discovered the cannabis cultivation and began to dismantle it, because he wanted nothing to do with it.”
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The former good-natured Sabatini later pleaded guilty to allowing cannabis production on his premises.
Bracken, who has 17 convictions for 29 offenses, admitted to producing cannabis and possessing the drug with the intention of supplying it.
He also admitted to dangerous driving and failing to stop after an accident when he injured grandparents David and Elizabeth Riddell.
Police said Bracken should stop his Golf as he was traveling south on the M6 at around 2.30pm on March 14.
But it crossed all four lanes, hitting 130 mph, before losing control after exiting onto an slip road that joins the A54 at Macclesfield.
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Dashcam footage showed it passing through a red light and crashing into the side of a Range Rover Evoque, sending it over the edge of grass.
Bracken and a passenger exited the Golf, removed two black bags from the car, and then fled in different directions.
Police found a bundle of banknotes totaling £ 5,000, Bracken’s iPhone and Sabatini’s bank card in the car.
Bracken’s brother, Tomas Bracken, reported that the Golf was stolen later that day, but Bracken’s DNA was found in the driver’s airbag.
Santamera said Mr. Riddell “suffered serious injuries,” including abdominal bleeding, and spent two days in the hospital.
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Ms. Riddell suffered bruising and swelling on one ankle, which was trapped in the car, and three months later she still had trouble walking.
She said her husband was very quiet after the accident and feared he would die, while Riddell recalled suffering the most severe pain of his life.
Bracken’s record includes driving twice while disqualified in 2004, violent disorder in 2007, dangerous driving in 2008, and cannabis production in 2017.
Tom Watson, in defense of Bracken, who has been in custody for six months, said his client’s “stupidity” had “hurt the people who matter most to him.”
The court heard that Sabatini was left caring for her four-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter, as well as Bracken’s eldest son, who has severe learning disabilities and epilepsy, which can cause 40 seizures a day.
(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Watson said this left Sabatini, who cried on the dock, about to ask for her stepson to be looked after.
He said Bracken’s crimes were largely motivated “to finance things his son needed, like cannabis oil, and possibly a lot of money for stem cell treatment, which would have been in Panama.”
Watson said Bracken apologized to the victims of his “gruesome” driving and had fled police because he had used cocaine.
Gary Lawrenson, defending Sabatini, said he suffered from two “severe episodes of postpartum depression” when his two children were born and his mental state contributed to his committing the crime.
She said that she was a full-time primary caregiver and that as “traumatic and sometimes overwhelming” as she was, she was afraid of jail and “was afraid of being separated from those three children.”
Judge Anil Murray said Bracken had a “commercial cannabis cultivation” motivated by financial gain and that his driving showed “a deliberate disregard for public safety.”
He noted that Bracken acknowledged that he had let his family down, adding: “You have done that, you have left your partner alone in difficult circumstances with children to care for, all because of your selfish crime.”
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Sabatini sobbed when the judge imprisoned his partner for two years and two months.
Judge Murray ordered the seizure of the £ 6,340 in cash and banned him from driving for four years and one month.
However, he said Sabatini was “in a very different position” and issued him a 12-month community order, with a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement.
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