Police found cannabis farm worth over £100,000 during search of house in Armley

A court 187 plants were found growing in the property at Eyres Avenue on June 11 this year.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court how officers went to the house after receiving information from members of the public.

Phi Nguyen unlocked a metal door to allow the officers inside the property.

Mr Dodds said officers found 95 plants on the upper floors of the four-storey building.

A further 92 plants were found growing in the basement.

There was evidence that Nguyen had been living at the property as there was a mattress on the living room floor, a sofa in the kitchen and a toothbrush in the bathroom.

The electricity supply to the property had been bypassed and rooms were equipped with extractor fans and transformers.

The plants were estimated as capable of producing cannabis with a street value of between £88,000 and £102,000.

He said he had been working in the construction industry in London and had moved to Leeds three weeks before his arrest.

The 44-year-old defendant said he travelled to Leeds by train and was told to show his mobile phone to a taxi driver who took him to the address in Armley.

Nguyen said he spent a week helping another man set up the cannabis farm and was told he would be given a share of the profits if he looked after the plants.

Imran Khan, mitigating, said Nguyen took part in the office out of desperation after his work in London "dried up".

Nguyen was jailed for 20 months.

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said: "This was a professional enterprise capable of producing commercial quantities.

"You agreed to do it for a percentage of the profits.

"You were not merely tending the plants but you spent a week helping to set up."