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A Vietnamese man claiming to be just 16 years old was discovered to be aged 22 after being found guilty of drug production.

Quan Van Vu, of no fixed address, has been handed a detention order after he was arrested when police uncovered an illegal drugs factory in a disused garage in North Wales.

His co-accused - Bang Ngoc Vo, 43, also known as Khaoi Nguyen and of no fixed address - admitted production of a controlled drug when he appeared before Caernarfon Crown Court in July.

Judge Huw Rees handed Vo an eight-month prison sentence, reports NorthWalesLive.

Because Vu had claimed to be 16 years old and no evidence confirming or disproving that claim was laid before the court, the judge dealt with him as a youth and handed him a similar period of detention and training.

(Image: Dyfed Powys Police)

However, after an assessment by Powys Youth Justice Service, he was assessed to be older than the age he claimed.

Thanking the service for carrying out the work, the judge said at court in Caernarfon that he was unable to do anything about the sentence handed out because it was out of time.

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The court heard Vu has been held in detention since his arrest and is due for release in the next few days.

He will be handed over to the Home Office's immigration service who will assess if he is to be deported.

Police raided the former garage in the early hours of January 12 and discovered a "sophisticated cannabis growing factory".

The floor had been split up into growing rooms, with compost, fertiliser, water and lights set up, and a plant nursery had been established in an upstairs area.

There were also mattresses for the two men to sleep on and cooking facilities.

If all the cannabis had grown to maturity, it would have been worth up to £1.13m, the court heard.

During the trial, the jury heard Vu accepted that he was working as a gardener, tending to the plants which he knew to be cannabis.

But, giving evidence, he told the jury he had been at Newtown for just a few days after being kidnapped in Birmingham and brought to the garage blindfolded in a van.

He told police officers he had entered the United Kingdom illegally in September 2017 in the back of a lorry, and that he had given police his date of birth but a translator misheard.

He was then taken to an immigration centre in Kent but absconded the following month.

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Vu claimed he was kidnapped in Vietnam and put on a plane, before travelling to the UK from France in the lorry.

He said he owed money borrowed by his late grandmother to pay for medical treatment in his home country, and that those he owed money to caught up with him last summer and forced him to carry out work to repay the debt.

Vo had also claimed that he was forced to work on the premises but had changed his plea at an earlier hearing.

He told officers he had been at Newtown for five months and made no financial gain from his time as a cannabis grower.

The defendant told officers he had entered the UK illegally a decade ago and wished to remain and work legally.