AN ILLEGAL immigrant today faces deportation after he was sentenced to two years in prison for his part in running a cannabis factory worth around �750,000 in Trimley St Mary.

AN ILLEGAL immigrant today faces deportation after he was sentenced to two years in prison for his part in running a cannabis factory worth around �750,000 in Trimley St Mary.

Ipswich Crown Court heard Doung Nguyen, a Vietnamese national pleaded guilty to the charge of producing a controlled class B drug.

The 31-year-old was discovered in the residential property in Punchard Way after a police raid on the house on June 17.

Prosecuting Godfried Duah said after forcing entry because the locks at the rented property had been changed, police officers discovered the house had been used as a cannabis factory, seizing 274 large plants along with 188 immature plants.

During a more extensive search of the property officers found Nguyen lying in a water tank in the loft space.

He pleaded guilty to the charge after admitting in police interview he had been at the address about one month and had fed and watered the plants.

Defending Kevin McCarthy said his client had been in the country about six years during which time he had become a father.

He said Nguyen had borrowed about �400 from his employer and when he found he could not re-pay the loan he said both he and his family had been threatened if he did not carry out the work at the cannabis factory.

Sentencing Judge Neil McKittrick said the drugs were valued at �500,000 with a further �250,000 worth of smaller plants seized.

He said: “You are nothing more than what is sometimes called a gardener, the mastermind behind the enterprise has not been brought to justice.”

He sentenced Nguyen to two years in prison and said he was likely to be deported to serve that sentence in his native country, Vietnam.

He also ordered the destruction of all the plants seized as well as the heating and lighting equipment used to cultivate the factory.