Bristol cannabis farm's gardener arrested as he tried to flee to Vietnam
A VIETNAMESE man has been jailed and is likely to be deported for helping to grow cannabis at a house in Totterdown.
A VIETNAMESE man has been jailed and is likely to be deported for helping to grow cannabis at a house in Totterdown.
When police raided the three-storey building on Richmond Street they found 275 plants growing, with a potential yield of more than 8kg of the class B drug, which could have been sold on Bristol's streets for tens of thousands of pounds.
Tuan Ha, an illegal immigrant aged 42, has been jailed for six months having admitted producing the class B drug.
Prosecuting at Bristol Crown Court, Kenneth Bell said homeless Ha was enlisted by a "Vietnamese associate" to be a gardener at the property.
In August 2012, police found that every room in the house was a "growing" room, with a sophisticated lighting, irrigation and ventilation set up in place.
Ha was not in the house but his fingerprints were found on a bottle of water, a packet of cigarettes and some plant feed.
He was arrested last December at Stansted Airport trying to flee the country on a false passport, Mr Bell said.
When he was fingerprinted, that linked him to the cannabis factory in Bristol.
Mitigating, David Maunder said his client had come to the UK in 2009 and had worked on and off in a "casual" capacity.
Ha admitted the offence on the basis that he was offered accommodation to tend to the plants for two to three weeks. He was not the instigator of the operation and had sizeable debts to criminals back in Vietnam, the court heard.
Mr Maunder said: "Reading between the lines, he has somewhat been exploited by others."
Recorder Adam Vaitilingam QC conceded the defendant had been "marginally involved" as he sentenced him to six months in prison, after which time he is likely to be deported.
Automatic deportation is initiated if a foreign national is jailed for at least a year.
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk 09/02/2014
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