A professional cannabis factory was nipped in the bud when police busted a farm worth more than £60,000.
An empty house in Stockton was packed with equipment, with its electricity supply bypassed to grow drugs.
Vietnamese gardener Thinh Nguyen, 24, has been jailed and wants to return home after he was caught fleeing the fledgling crop.
He tried to escape from the back door of the home on Durham Road, Stockton when police raided it on the afternoon of December 3 last year.
The house appeared about to be given over to cannabis cultivation, said prosecutor David Crook today.
Teesside Crown Court heard how 137 immature, non-flowering cannabis plants were growing, aided by high-powered lights, timers and ventilation.
If the crop had matured, it could have produced £61,650 worth of the Class B drug.
Inside the property were “the beginnings of what could have been a far more substantial grow”.
Equipment was ready to power two to three more growing areas, said Mr Crook.
Officers found 208 plant pots, 40 600W lighting units, 62 transformers, 61 bags of soil, 30m of garden hose, eight tubs of fertiliser and four boxes of tubing.
One room was set aside for accommodation. Phones and tablet devices were found in the house along with £337 cash.
Nguyen, now of no fixed address, aided by a Vietnamese interpreter in court, pleaded guilty to producing the Class B drug, his first UK conviction.
He admitted he was paid £300 for his part in the farm, now deemed a “lesser role” by the courts.
Andrew Turton, defending, said: “He had arrived at this grow the very morning on which he was arrested. That is accepted by the Crown.
“It shows that he has just come to this enterprise, which was a new grow and he had been parachuted in, effectively, to deal with it.
“He gave clear instructions that he wasn’t trafficked. He came here of his own free will.
“He came to the UK via Russia, financed by his grandmother in the hope of making good for himself.
“He has been in the UK for 12 months and he has decided that the UK holds no further attraction for him.
“He wishes to return to Vietnam as soon as is possible.
“He understands that the court will pass an immediate custodial term today.
“And at the conclusion of the period in custody there is a chance that he will be returned to his homeland.”
Judge Tony Briggs jailed Nguyen for one year, saying he was fully involved as a “lesser participant” in a professional set-up aimed at gaining a high yield.
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