A Vietnamese cannabis farmer who claimed he thought he was growing a herbal cold cure is in prison awaiting deportation today.
Illegal immigrant Ha Dong, 22, was caught tending a house-based skunk cannabis farm with a potential annual yield of £135,000.
He was convicted of producing the Class B drug after he failed to convince a jury that he thought he was growing herbs for a cold cure.
Police raided the end-terrace house on Newlands Road, Eaglescliffe on May 27 last year.
They discovered 100 cannabis plants and 129 seedlings growing in two bedrooms and a loft, Teesside Crown Court heard.
The house’s electricity supply had been bypassed and the plants would have produced 4.5kg of skunk worth £45,000. The yields over a year would be worth £135,000.
The property had been rented to a man calling himself Johnnie Chan who paid in cash and has never been traced.
Officers arrested live-in gardener Dong, who spoke no English and had been left with two mobile phones and an iPad.
Dong denied producing cannabis. In his trial in November, he told jurors he thought he was growing herbs for a Vietnamese cold cure medicine.
Speaking through an interpreter, he said he came to the UK through Poland and Russia in August 2013 in search of a better life.
He told how he was taken to Eaglescliffe by people who told him he owed them £22,000, a fortnight before the police raid.
He said he knew nothing about drugs and had never seen a cannabis plant before.
Dong said: “I believed what they told me, that they were only herbal plants.
“I believed it was a herb used by Vietnamese to treat the common cold.
“They said that they had got a camera in the house, and they told me not to do anything against them or they would beat me up or kill me.
“I did not think that what was being grown in the house was an illegal drug.”
Dong denied production of cannabis and was found guilty by a jury.
As he appeared in court for sentencing yesterday, prosecutor David Crook said plans were being made for Dong’s future by the immigration authorities.
Andrew Turton, defending, said: “He seems to have had a thoroughly miserable existence, as a young child being sold by his adoptive parents into servitude and remaining there.
“That is presumably what he has to look forward to in the future.
“Clearly the motive was to pay off a debt.”
Judge Les Spittle told Dong: “You did not accept responsibility for your role in this offence.
“And you put forward a story to a Teesside jury which they did not believe.”
He said the court gave some credence to Dong’s account of being sold off in Russia, Poland then the UK, and getting involved in the farm to pay a debt.
He jailed Dong for one year for his “lesser role”.
He added: “I have been informed that the UK Border Agency are well aware of you and they may very well take steps to have you deported as an illegal immigrant.”
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