A MAN who set up a drugs farm and acted as a courier for dealers has been spared an immediate prison sentence.

Police found 80 immature cannabis plants when they raided the unit at Daleside Works on Craghead Colliery Industrial Estate, near Stanley, on January 24 last year.

Three days later Michael Jefferson, 42, of Victoria Terrace, Stanley, was stopped in a gold Isuzu Trooper and police found a block of amphetamine sulphate between seats in the car.

Jonathan Walker, prosecuting at Durham Crown Court today, (Friday, May 15) said the amphetamine was 90 per cent pure and had the potential to be worth up to £35,000 once it had been cut with other substances into 1g ‘wraps’.

The court heard the cannabis plants had not flowered and were worth around £5 each, a total of £400, but could have yielded around £20,000 worth of drugs when sold on the street.

Mr Walker said: “He stated he had got himself into financial trouble. He said he had been forced to grow cannabis at an address.”

“He said he would smoke some himself and sell some on to make some money.”

Jefferson pleaded guilty to the production of a cannabis as well as possession of amphetamines during a hearing at the court on April 20.

The court was told he received a caution for the production of cannabis in June 2013.

Mitigating, Christopher Baker said: “Eighty immature plants were found. The exact yield is not an exact science.”

Judge Simon Hickey said the purity of the amphetamines was unusually high and the purity in County Durham tended to be around four or five per cent.

He said: “It has been accepted that you were acting as a courier of the drug.”

The judge said the offences did pass the custody threshold, but said the sentence could be suspended due to the detrimental effect it would have on his partner after reading a letter from her doctor.

Jefferson was given a 16 month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work.

The judge said: “I hope I am right in taking a chance on you. If not you will come back before me and I will lock you up.”