A 'GARDENER' who was offered £5,000 to look after a cannabis farm has been jailed for 16 months.

Marjon Kola was caught after police raided an address in Middlesbrough last December.

Following his arrest, the 28-year-old told officers that he had been working at the house for two weeks before the raid.

Ian West, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court that officers searched the house on Harcourt Road and discovered a cannabis farm upstairs and a downstairs room being prepared to grow the Class B drug.

Mr West said that the defendant was released under investigation before leaving the area and being arrested for a second time in a different cannabis farm.

He added: "He said he had been working in the house for two weeks when he was arrested. He said he had come to be there because he was looking for a job and by luck he met an Albanian man who offered him a job in the house.

"The man showed him how to tend to the plants, how to water them and how to turn the lights on and off.

"He knew that the plants were cannabis and that they were illegal."

Following his release from custody Kola headed to Cambridgeshire where he was again arrested while working in a cannabis farm, Mr West said.

The court heard how Kola was jailed for ten months at Peterborough Crown Court earlier this year as a result.

Kola, of Golding Road, Northampton, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of cannabis.

Simon Hustler, in mitigation, said his client had been in custody since January 30 and had served his sentence from his other drug conviction.

He added: "He says that custody has had a salutory affect on him in the last seven months and these mistakes will not be made again in the future."

Judge Deborah Sherwin jailed Kola for 16 months for his role in the drug supply network.

She said: "You were employed as a gardener and you did this to raise money and you were expecting to be paid £5,000.

"I have heard, regrettably, that after that you were arrested for a similar offence.

"You have been in custody since the end of January, you received a sentence of ten months for that matter and you will have served that sentence by now."