Two jailed at Leeds Crown Court over cannabis farm at Thorp Arch industrial estate near Wetherby

Armardo Leli and Kastifot Nicolli tried to run off when police raided the unit at Thorp Arch industrial estate near Wetherby on November 25 2019, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Both men, who worked as gardeners at the cannabis farm, were caught and arrested during the police operation.

Andrew Stranex, prosecuting, said there was "highly sophisticated" cannabis production operation at the unit with a significant amount of equipment.

Police found 269 cannabis plants capable of producing more than 14 kilos of cannabis.

Leli, 21, and Nicolli, 28 - both of no fixed abode - admitted producing cannabis.

The court proceedings were translated for both men by an Albanian interpreter.

Charles Blatchford, mitigating for Leli, said his client had debts in Albania and was told he could pay them off by coming to the UK to work on a cannabis farm.

Mr Blatchford said: "He remains in hock to these people and he has significant concerns about his family. There is still a lot of pressure being applied to him and his family.

"This is not something that he was going to make money out of. It was to pay off a vastly inflated debt.

"They are gardeners at the bottom end of the food chain, They are doing this because they are in hock to other people."

Mohammed Bashir, for Nicolli, said: "He accepts he got involved in growing cannabis as a gardener.

"He said he had no idea where the drugs went after the plants were cut and who put them in bags.

"He received no money for it. All he did was sit in the unit and water them."

Mr Bashir added: "When he was in the unit he was growing cannabis but he was doing it under the direction of others."

Handing each man a 35 month prison sentence, Judge Tom Bayliss QC , told them: "You tried to run away and destroy your mobile phones, but you were caught by those police officers.

"In the unit was a large scale and highly sophisticated cannabis production operation."

Judge Bayliss added: "Both of you were clearly motivated by financial advantage. Both of you must have had awareness and understanding of the scale of what was clearly a large operation."