Gardener for cannabis farm worth up to £50k faces deportation

An Ipswich man who acted as a gardener for a cannabis farm in a terraced house in the town has been jailed for 21 months.

Police officers who raided the house in Chesterton Close in June this year found 93 cannabis plants and growing equipment including high power light bulbs, transformers, reflective sheeting and a ventilation system, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Peter Clark, prosecuting said that an expert estimated the street value of the plants at between £16,000 and £50,000 and between £10,000 and £30,000 if sold in bulk.

Sentencing 25-year-old Gentian Gjuni, Judge Emma Peters said: “Although it was in a terraced house, it was a significant operation capable of producing significant quantities for commercial use.”

She said it was likely Gjuni would be deported to his home country.

Gjuni, of Chesterton Close, Ipswich, who has no previous convictions, admitted production of cannabis.

Lynne Shirley, for Gjuni, said her client arrived in the UK in February last year as an illegal immigrant on a lorry from Albania in the hope of finding work and having a better life.

He was promised £500 a month but received nothing.

She said he’d been taken to the house by some Romanian men and was left there to water the plants.