Three Invercargill people who conspired to manufacture LSD could be described as clowns, Justice Hansen said in the High Court yesterday.

Jarrod Kevin Davey, 25, Jason Peter Vaughan, 24, and Renee Victoria McCleery, 19, had earlier admitted a joint charge of conspiring to manufacture LSD.

Justice Hansen said he was sure it would come as a shock to the three to learn the offence carried a maximum sentence of 14 years’ jail.

"In the bizarre circumstance of your case, prison is not appropriate – indeed they are so bizarre you could really be fairly described as three clowns."

How anyone could undertake to make LSD from beer, ammonia and non-fat milk defied belief, he said.

"It must have bee a heavy drinking session that convinced you you could manufacture LSD from that."

Vaughan and Davey were sentenced to six months’ periodic detention and two years’ supervision.

McCleery, who had no previous convictions, was sentence to two years’ supervision.