Owner of SP based Growquest pleads guilty to violating ag regulations
July 17, 2013
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
A Santa Paula-based businessman has pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of violating food and agriculture regulations by unlawfully shipping nursery stock from one county to another and selling the stock without a valid license.
According to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, the July 2 guilty plea came after an investigation by the DA’s Office, the county Agricultural Commissioner’s office and the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Christopher Morgan Gilcrest, 49 of Lancaster, had operated a Web-based nursery supply company, Growquest, in Santa Paula that sells and delivers rose bushes, ladybugs and other nursery items online, according to the District Attorney’s press release. The statement noted that a Napa Valley resident ordered 65 five-gallon tea rose bushes from Growquest on June 18, which were delivered by Gilcrest on June 30.
Prosecutors said the person who bought the plants asked the Napa County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office for an inspection at Frostfire Vineyards that revealed to authorities the shipment lacked shipping and county certification documents.
The Agricultural Commissioner’s Office was concerned about the agricultural pest known as the glassy-winged sharpshooter, an insect that carries the grapevine-killing Pierce’s disease. The disease presents a danger to California’s $50 billion grape industry, as the glassy wing sharpshooters can move from location to location via nursery stock including rose bushes.
Ventura County is “infested” with the glassy-winged sharpshooter and has a stringent inspection and treatment program. Napa Valley - a region of many vineyards - has so far avoided the destructive insects. Each shipment of host material must be inspected and treated before being shipped outside Ventura County.
The DA’s statement noted that each shipment must also have a “Certificate of Quarantine Compliance” from the county agricultural commissioner’s office verifying the shipment has been treated and inspected. “Gilcrest,” noted the statement, “sold and transported the rose bushes without following quarantine protocols,” and the rose bushes had to be destroyed in Napa.
Gilcrest was ordered to serve 10 days in the Ventura County work release program and was placed on 36 months of summary probation. He also was ordered to pay $2,335 in restitution, pay a $500 fine, and not operate without a license.
