Home Office to decide whether cannabis gardener caught in Telford will be deported
An Albanian man was caught working as a cannabis gardener in a house with nearly £45,000 worth of the drug.
Mario Deda, 21, of Spring Meadow, Sutton Hill, Telford, was sentenced at Shrewsbury Crown Court after admitting one charge of producing a controlled drug of class B – cannabis.
Simon Parry, prosecuting said police had raided Deda's home address on May 16, smashing in to find him as the sole occupant.
He was arrested after police found a hydroponic set-up intended to specifically grow cannabis.
Mr Parry said the windows were covered, the rooms were ventilated with fans, and a lighting operation was in place to grow the plants.
The court heard there were two rooms with cannabis – one had 46 plants, and the other had seven.
Mr Parry said that the yield could have weighed up to four and a half kilograms and was worth anything up to £44,520.
The court was told that Deda had been 'frank' in his interview with police.
He told them he had been at the property three days, and had obtained the job through the Albanian community "in order to support himself and his family".
Clive Myrie, mitigating, said Deda apologised to the court for getting involved in the offending.
He added: "His focus and intention is to return to Albania to assist his family."
Sentencing, Judge Laura Hobson said: "You were paid to look after the cannabis plants in what was a large scale operation."
She said that as well as two rooms containing plants, another nine bags of harvested cannabis were found in the loft of the property, and added that it "suggests to me this operation had been going for some time".
Judge Hobson told Deda there was no alternative to an immediate custodial sentence, and jailed him for eight months.
She added: "It is for the Home Office to decide whether you should be deported to Albania. I know you have expressed a desire to return and I hope that happens as soon as possible."