Drug-growing tenants keep house

Police found 29 cannabis plants with a street value of around £11,600 at the home of James Nuttall, 53, and his partner Jacqueline Clarke, 50, back in May last year.

In October, they were both convicted at Sheffield Crown Court for producing cannabis and were sentenced in December - Nuttall being given two years imprisonment and Clarke being given a 12-month suspended sentence.

Sheffield Homes and Sheffield Council then served a Notice Seeking Possession of their council house in Trenton Rise, Woodhouse, and the case was heard in Sheffield County Court this week.

Deputy district judge Thompson made a possession order but suspended it until October 2014, on the basis that there would be no more illegal drug activity at the property.

Sheffield Homes’ assistant director of customer Services, Dean Butterworth said, “These tenants know that if they breach their tenancy conditions again, they will most certainly lose their home.”

Nuttall is due to be released from prison in July this year.