IPSWICH: A man who looked after a “cannabis factory” at a house in the town has been jailed for two years.

Minh Phat Vu was arrested after police officers went to a house in Rendlesham Road and found 500 plants growing in four rooms of the property, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Vu, of no fixed address, admitted producing cannabis and was jailed for two years.

Sentencing him Judge Peter Thompson accepted he was only a gardener tending the cannabis crop and was at the bottom of the scale.

He described the set up in the house as sophisticated.

Dino Barricella for Vu said that on his arrival in the UK Vu had been taken to the “cannabis factory” in Rendlesham Road and had been told to water the plants.

He said there was no furniture at the house apart from a blow up bed and a duvet and although Vu had been promised �35 a day he hadn’t received a penny for the ten days he had been there before his arrest.

He claimed Vu had been locked in the house and had been told the property was alarmed and that there were people waiting outside if he tried to leave.

n What more can be done to combat cannabis factories? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or alternatively you can send an e-mail to eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk