A former teenage actor tipped for stardom after his performance in a TV drama about a crime-hit Leeds estate has been jailed for growing cannabis.
Lee Brimble, now 27, was 16 when he played a joyrider in the follow-up to the Bafta-nominated Channel 4 programme Tina Goes Shopping, which showed the gritty side of life on Halton Moor.
Brimble – now a career criminal – was returned to jail for 12 months after police found cannabis plants growing at his home on Ullswater Crescent, Halton Moor.
It is the latest conviction in a long history of offending since he got his big chance playing the role of Muffy in 2001’s Tina Take a Break.
A year after the small screen hit, Brimble was named and shamed by Leeds City Council as a real-life trouble maker behind a reign of terror in Halton Moor.
An antisocial behaviour order was slapped on him after he was identified as a leading figure in a gang wreaking havoc on the estate.
Since then Brimble has served prison sentences for drugs offences, burglary and vehicle crime, including ramming a city centre nightclub with a stolen taxi.
Leeds Crown Court heard his latest offence saw officers execute a search warrant at his home and seize 16 plants, which were capable of producing over £6,000 worth of class B drug. Brimble pleaded guilty to producing cannabis.
Adrian Pollard, for Brimble, said his client had been attracted to “thrill-seeking behaviour” for many years. He added: “He may well be described as a career criminal.”
Mr Pollard said Brimble had abused drugs for many years and began growing the cannabis for his own use but also supplied it to friends. He was in debt at the time of the offence.
Jailing him, judge Sally Cahill QC said: “You are a person who has appeared regularly before these courts in the past.”