Teesside drugs farms woman set to be deported

Worker in cannabis farms worth up to £188,000 jailed and set for deportation after claiming to be trafficking victim

A young Vietnamese woman was linked to two professional cannabis farms growing up to £188,000 worth of the drug.

Huyen Pham, 20, claimed she was a victim of trafficking after she was found in a home on Knole Road, Billingham.

The rented house contained 59 cannabis plants in the loft, 48 in a bedroom.

The crop could have yielded between £29,960 and £89,880 worth of the Class B drug.

Police raided the home on November 21 last year, Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday

Pham's fingerprints matched those found on plastic sheeting at another cannabis farm, said prosecutor Rachel Masters.

Officers found that second site in a rented property on Hampden Street, South Bank on September 9 last year.

It had 96 plants in a bedroom and 21 in the loft, which could have produced cannabis worth between £32,760 and £98,220.

Rooms in the two commercial set-ups were designed to help the growth of the illegal drug with ventilation, heating, lighting and bypassed electricity.

Pham, of no fixed address, admitted two counts of being concerned in the supply of cannabis, her first convictions.

She was an illegal immigrant who entered the UK via a lorry at Felixstowe in 2011.

After exhaustive investigations, the defence accepted that she was not a trafficking victim as she claimed.

Jane Foley, representing Pham, said she was still vulnerable, exploited and frightened.

She said Pham was put to work in the two properties but did not gain financially from the farms except for money to feed herself.

Pham said she had been the victim of repeated abuse since coming to this country in search of her mother.

Judge Howard Crowson told Pham, who was aided in the dock by a Vietnamese interpreter: "You were in this country illegally, perhaps hoping for a better life.

"Instead you took a role in a criminal offence, growing cannabis.

"There are two separate cannabis farms, with high potential yields, professionally set up.

"I do accept that you have had a lesser role in this enterprise and you would not have expected any large financial reward."

Pham was jailed for 14 months, after which she will be deported.

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk 17/06/2013