A cannabis farm gardener who was earning up to £800 a week tending to a drugs factory has been jailed.
Ensuild Baha, who is originally from Albania, had come to the UK legally on his Greek passport, having served in the military there. He worked lawfully in various jobs in the UK but when he became unemployed he took up a criminal job for some "older Albanian men" looking after 200 cannabis plants in Sunderland.
Police had been contacted about the smell of the drugs coming from the house and when they turned up on June 19, Baha and another man tried to run away. The other man fled but Baha was caught.
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Newcastle Crown Court heard the cannabis farm was estimated to be worth anywhere between £27,300 and £118,500. He told a probation officer he was earning between £600 and £800 a week for looking after the farm.
Baha, 26, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis over a four-and-a-half month period and was jailed for two years. Recorder Mark McKone KC told him: "Cannabis causes many users to have mental illness, such as psychosis. Growing cannabis is very profitable and that's why criminals risk growing it."
Joe Culley, defending, said Baha emigrated from Albania to Greece in 2004 and after some brief military service there came to the UK. He added: "He accepts accepting the job as a gardener was very naive. He was operating under instruction.
"He has taken English language courses in prison with a view to getting a legal job in the future and keeping it. He has genuine remorse and offers an apology for having become involved in the way he was."
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