John Duka appeared in Ballarat Magistrates Court on Thursday where he pleaded guilty to using cannabis.

The court heard Duka was busted by police when they executed a search warrant on his Walker Street property on May 7.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Sam Young told the court police found a hydroponic system in a bungalow at the rear of his property along with two cannabis plants, 16 juvenile plants, 400 grams of ground cannabis powder, a box of prescription codeine not belonging to Duka, items including an electric heater and scales and seven more cannabis plants outside the bungalow.

The court heard Duka told police the cannabis plants, with approximately 453 grams of cannabis head, had been growing for two months while the plants outside the bungalow had been growing for seven months and were used to self-medicate.

Duka also said in an interview with police: “I put 15 seeds in, you sort of hope half will pop up and be good".

The court heard Duka admitted to police he had taken cannabis “all day and everyday” with a use of 2-4mg a day.

When asked why he grew the plants, Duka told police he used it for his depression and planned to make butter, but denied all allegations of trafficking the drug.

Defence counsel Mike Wardell said Duka, was an award-wining chef sought out for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and “acclaimed around the country”, who had been reliant on the drug since a car accident in 2003.

Wardell told the court Duka was run over by a vehicle while on Kangaroo Island and had been “emotionally falling apart” since.

Mr Wardell said Duka, who he described to the court as "fragile”, found smoking cannabis "problematic” so he decided to turn it into butter and use it to cook with.

“It wasn't really a professional set-up … it was a pot plant under a light system,” he said.

In relation to the prescribed medication, Mr Wardell told the court it had been left on the bench in the bungalow by another person.

Upon sentencing, Magistrate Cynthia Toose told Duka the “community denounces any drug use". 

She sentenced a teary Duka to an eight-month community corrections order, 80 hours unpaid community work and a $700 fine with conviction.