Cannabis farm 'gardener' jailed

Illegal immigrant Puong Hoang was arrested when police searched the property in Lower York Street, Wakefield, on December 14 and discovered the cannabis farm.

Most of the plants were about knee height but he told officers 147 had recently been harvested.

Philip Adams, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday a full hydroponic growing system was installed in the property. "On any view this was large-scale cultivation."

When interviewed, Hoang said he had arrived in the UK about a year earlier and had spent some time in London before being put to work in Wakefield where the factory was already set up. He had been there about two months.

Hoang, 37, admitted producing cannabis. Sentencing him the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier. QC said: "This was a substantially sized factory, fully equipped to make tens of thousands of pounds... You would have got comparatively small reward for what you were doing and you were the one who ran the risk of getting caught."

Hoang now faces deportation.