Jail for cannabis farm illegal immigrant
AN illegal immigrant has been jailed for eight months after he was caught tending a £130,000 cannabis farm in a Bolton house.
AN illegal immigrant has been jailed for eight months after he was caught tending a £130,000 cannabis farm in a Bolton house.
At Bolton Crown Court, Judge Charles Bloom heard how police arrived at the house in Cecilia Street, Great Lever, on September 14 after arresting the house's owners.
Geoff Whelan, prosecuting, said officers could smell cannabis and they found three upstairs rooms and a loft crammed with 403 plants being cultivated using a sophisticated hydroponics system. Two men ran from the house but were caught and, in court yesterday, Du Hoang, aged 26, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to producing cannabis.
Hoang told police he came to England as an illegal immigrant from Vietnam and had worked in London and Birmingham for two years before coming to Bolton, where a man offered him £1,000 to work as a gardener for 10 days at the house in Cecilia Street.
Judge Bloom, sentencing Hoang to eight months in jail, said he could have expected to receive a sentence of up to 10 years if he had played a more significant role.
Hoang will be kept in custody at the end of his sentence until the immigration authorities can arrange for his deportation back to Vietnam.
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk 12/10/2012
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