A cannabis grower from Dawlish who claimed he had a human right to free electricity has been found guilty of bypassing his meter.

Graham Walker removed the entire pre-payment meter from his home in Dawlish as soon as it was installed in July 2021 but it took months for energy company Eon to notice.

He wrote to the company’s chief executive offering to return the meter but heard nothing until an engineer came to check his supply on September 30,  2022 and found it missing.

The supply was cut off but Walker reconnected it almost immediately and carried on using it until police went to his house on October 4 and arrested him for growing 12 cannabis plants in the bathroom or under lamps in a curtained off part of his kitchen.

 He was caught growing cannabis again the following June after he was evicted from the house in Celtic Fields but climbed back in through a rear window and carried on living there.

 This time he had four plants and some harvested cannabis and was arrested again. He told them he was growing cannabis to treat chronic back pain which he had suffered in a car crash many years earlier.

 He claimed he had declared that he was growing cannabis in two family court cases and assumed he was allowed to carry on legally because nothing had been done about it.

 He also told police that he could not have a contract with the housing association or the power company because he was a different legal entity and a ‘living man’. He represented himself, and asked to be referred to as Graham during proceedings.

 He told the judge: “I have rescinded my authority with the British government for abusing me over the past 18 years.”

 Former firefighter Walker, aged 59, who now lives elsewhere in the same street, denied two counts of possessing and producing cannabis and one of abstracting electricity but was found guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court.

 He was cleared of damaging the new lock which was fitted after his eviction after questioning the legality of process.

 Judge David Evans adjourned sentence until next month and ordered a probation pre-sentence report which will propose alternatives to prison. He told Walker he would not go to jail and would receive a community penalty.

 The judge had earlier told the jury that Walker’s explanations about why he removed the meter and grew the cannabis did not amount to a valid defence in law.

 Mr Greg Richardson, prosecuting, said the electric company official who found the meter disconnected on September 30, 2022, saw Walker dressed in the outfit of a French firefighter.

 He found the meter had been removed and by-passed and cut off the supply but found it re-connected on October 4. Police found the meter in the house along with 12 cannabis plants and a small amount of cropped cannabis.

 The cannabis would have had a street value of up to £14,200, depending on yield, but it was accepted Walker was growing it for his personal use. He told police he had no money to pay for electricity to grow the cannabis which he used for pain relief and that growing it was his right as a human being.

 He also said it was against his human rights to remove the meter and that the state should provide free power and gas. The power company estimated he had used about £1,000 worth of electricity in the 15 months when the meter was out of use

 Mr Richardson said Walker was evicted for rent arrears in June 2023 but a housing association employee found the new lock on the front door had been drilled out when he checked the property the next day. He also found Walker had moved back in.

 He was evicted again and this time a new lock was fitted and a key safe installed, but he was back again the next day, having removed the key lock from the wall and let himself in.

 This time, police were called and arrested him after finding four more cannabis plants and two pots of cannabis oil. He told officers he had removed the key safe and was growing cannabis for pain relief.

He said he had drilled out the lock because his key had got stuck in it when he tried to get in. He returned to the house twice because it was home and he felt his eviction was illegal.

References read on behalf of Walker described him as kind, honest, loving, caring and devoted to his family and friends. He had cared for his wife for 18 years until she chose to leave him in 2020 and worked as a paper boy for many years.

 He was said to be a ‘well respected and law abiding citizen’ who had played a full part in bringing up his six daughters, helping at a mixed martial arts club.