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A tenant who allowed a house to be used as a £64,000 cannabis factory has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Samuel Wilson was not present when the police raided the house in College Avenue, Highfields, Leicester, where 36 mature plants were due for harvesting – but his fingerprint was found on a plant pot.

The crop could have yielded five-and-a-half kilos of the class B drug, which would have taken a heavy cannabis user 16 years to smoke, according to an expert’s report, Leicester Crown Court was told.

Samuel Skinner, prosecuting, said: “This was a significant amount of cannabis for commercial supply.”

Wilson (38) admitted producing cannabis in April 2016, by playing a limited role, and also possessing a small amount of the drug on arrest.

Mr Skinner said the plants were growing in two upstairs bedrooms, where professional cultivation equipment including lights and fans were installed.

Documents indicating he was the occupant, since December 2015, were recovered.

He was arrested the following September at a different address in the city, when in possession of 36.4 grams of cannabis.

He denied knowledge of the cannabis production operation when interviewed.

Judge Nicholas Dean QC said: “He’s now accepting he assisted with the commercial growth of cannabis.”

Sentencing, he told Wilson, of Hungarton Boulevard, Humberstone, Leicester: “In the early part of 2016 you lent yourself to, and assisted in, a commercial operation to grow not insignificant amounts of cannabis.

“I’m told the yield was likely to have been in excess of five kilos.

“You tended to the growth and lent your premises to it.”

He said he took into account the “significant delay” since the offence and being prosecuted and the fact Wilson had stayed out of trouble in the meantime.

Steven Newcombe, mitigating, said: “An opportunity was offered to him and it took it; to live in a property where he wasn’t having to pay rent.

“That was his benefit from it, along with being able to smoke cannabis and not paying for it.

“He lived in one room, effectively providing some security for those premises on behalf of others.

“He knew what was happening and was part of the machine that led to the production of a large amount of cannabis.

“He eventually lost his nerve and left the property and is now living back with his mother.

“He previously worked on various fun fairs, for 19 years, but ill health brought that to an end.

“When arrested he indicated he did stay in the property but claimed he had nothing to do with the cannabis.

“He had, effectively, put his neck on the line for others.

“He’s not been involved in serious criminality or drugs in the past.

“He was arrested in September 2016 and then there was a year while the decision was made to proceed.

“It’s been a matter of considerable anxiety for him.”

Mr Newcombe said Wilson was now an official carer for his mother, who suffered from ill health and relied upon him.

He added: “She’ll be in difficulty if he’s sent to prison for any length of time.”