Man jailed over £500k cannabis factory

Luc Dinn Vu, a Vietnamese national, acted as the "gardener" at the factory on Waymills Industrial Estate in Whitchurch, Shrewsbury Crown Court was told.

The operation was only discovered when an estate agent took potential clients to a unit on the industrial estate - and found Vu and the factory.

Vu, 40 and of no fixed address, admitted a charge of being concerned in the production of a controlled Class B drug and was jailed when he appeared at court yesterday.

Judge Peter Barrie told Vu he had only been spared being recommended for deportation because the necessary notices had not been served.

Mr Kevin Jones, prosecuting, told the court that a Barbers estate agent had taken potential clients to a unit on the industrial estate when the "sophisticated" factory was discovered.

He said: "When officers attended they found this defendant and it is right to say that the letting agent had already seen him, so between that time and when the police arrived he did not abscond."

The court heard Vu had taken on the role of the "gardener" at the factory, responsible for looking after the plants, of which the value was thought to be about half a million pounds.

Mrs Debra White, for Vu, said he was promised accommodation and pay for his role.

"He arrived in this country in the back of a lorry and has been here for a few years now, living in the London area and working for cash payment," she said.

"He then met a male by chance who was a Vietnamese speaker and it was that male who asked him to move to this area to work."

The court heard that Vu had moved to England after struggling to find work in his home country, but he had been forced to pay the equivalent of 10,000 US dollars to be smuggled in.

Mrs White said that this debt needed to be paid back and Vu feared for his family and his children, aged 15 and eight, should they needed to sell their home in Vietnam.

She told the court the defendant had admitted his responsibility and could be seen as a "victim of his own circumstance".

Judge Barrie told Vu: "I am not able to make a recommendation for deportation because you have not been served with the necessary notices.

"I would like to make it clear that if I had been able to, I would have done so."

The judge made an order that all equipment and drugs seized from the factory would be destroyed.