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A GUST of wind uncovered a cannabis farm, a court heard today.

For it blew back the curtain of a bedroom window allowing a passing policeman to see huge heat lamps hanging from the ceiling.

James Wildon initially refused to let the beat bobby into his home, but after the officer gained entry he found two upstairs rooms fitted out with cultivation equipment.

Twenty-five plants were found being warmed by industrial-strength lights in a back bedroom and a further 52 were in a propagater in the second room, said Shaun Dryden, prosecuting.

Unemployed cannabis user Wildon, 41, of Rydal Street, was jailed for two years at Teesside Crown Court yesterday after he admitted producing Class C drugs in June last year.

After his arrest, he told police he had saved his benefits and spent as much as £500 on the plants and equipment in the hope of doubling his money by selling the drugs.

But Wildon's barrister Robin Denny told the court that experts said the tiny seedlings might not have bloomed because of Wildon's poor horticultural skills.

Judge Michael Taylor told Wildon: "They may have been in an early stage of development, so it is not known what they would have produced.

"But industrial lights and procedures were in operation. You had taken some trouble to set it up. Clearly, the intention was that it was going to go onto the market for profit for you.

"This sort of activity in this part of the world is all too prevalent and it has to be stamped out. You knew you were taking a risk and, unfortunately for you, it has not paid off."

The court heard that the secret farm was uncovered after the lights were spotted as the officer walked past Wildon's home in Rydal Street, Hartlepool, on the afternoon of June 11.

Mr Dryden said the policeman also saw two men - one of them Wildon - walk past another window carrying what appeared to be a tray of cannabis seedlings.

Mr Denny told the court that Wildon had been a cannabis user for some time, and smoked the drug to help aleviate pains caused by a curvature of the spine.

He added: "He said he would have sold the plants on, but there is no suggestion he had ever sold anyone any cannabis. This is the lowest possible level without any actual production."

6:04pm Friday 28th March 2008

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