Pungent smell led to cannabis factory find

When they knocked on the door of the premises in Armley Park Road, Leeds, last October they were greeted by Andrew Penrose, who told them: "I suppose you'll want to come in," Matthew Donkin, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday.

Inside they found 80 cannabis plants between two and three feet tall growing in the cellar, growing equipment in the front room, three washing lineswith plants drying over them in a first floor bedroom and 50 cuttings in small pots with the two mature plants from which they had been taken in another bedroom.

They also recovered a propagator and heat lamps, weighing scales and books on how to grow cannabis.

The court heard that in 2001 Penrose was jailed for producing cannabis.

Penrose told officers this time it had started as a hobby to support his own use of cannabis but for economic reasons he began growing to sell.

Andrew Stranex, for Penrose, said he was tempted to grow more after he was made redundant and another person, who was the prime mover, had offered to supply the equipment for a share in the proceeds.

"He knows he should not have done it," he said.

Penrose, now 45, admitted producing cannabis and possession with intent to supply.

Jailing him for three-and-a-half years, Judge Paul Hoffman said he accepted Penrose was growing to satisfy his own significant habit but was clearly planning to sell on the drug since the property was almost "dedicated" to cannabis production.

"There was scarcely a roomin this house which, in one way or another, was not given over to an aspect of growing these plants."