Old Town cannabis farm discovered after gardener leaves the door open

Officers were called to the property on Winifred Street in Old Town on March 23, 2020, after reports of four men breaking in.

Whilst it turned out there was no break in, officers still got more than they were bargaining for.

Prosecutor Ieuan Callaghan told Swindon Crown Court on Tuesday (May 24) that when they entered, they found a single, small cannabis plant in one of the rooms of the property.

But there was a hole in the wall that led into the neighbouring flat, and four rooms were full of cannabis plants, rigged up with lights and fans.

But, Mr Callaghan said, while officers were still there, Franco Kapja returned having just left to get something to eat.

Initially, officers estimated there were 300 plants, although forensic analysis found 201 viable plants with an estimated yield of over seven kilograms.

“That yield has been valued between £35,000 if sold in kilogram deals, or £71,000 if sold in one gram street deals.”

Pleading guilty to a charge of producing a Class B drug at a previous hearing, Kapja said that he was only a gardener and had no involvement in drug dealing.

The court also heard that the electricity supply was bypassed, and specialist equipment was utilised.

Mitigating, Sam Arif said that her client had entered the country in 2018 as an asylum seeker, and initially lived with his uncle, a legal resident of the UK.

But tensions rose when he was unable to work or claim benefits because of his status, as he waits for the Home Office to make a decision on his application.

He left the home and was living on the streets, when an acquaintance said he could live in the Winifred Street apartment.

The electricity board working outside the house days after the raid

“He literally thought it was a roof [over his head],” Ms Arif said. “He said as soon as I walked in there was other people in the property, it was clearly set up.”

But soon, the other men that had been there tending the plants left, and Kapja was asked to water the plants.

“The situation is that he had no money at the time, he was in a desperate situation, he didn’t know initially what it was, he wasn’t initially asked to do anything, but quite clearly, the gentleman knew his situation and he felt exploited,” Ms Arif concluded.

Sentencing the defendant, of Minerva Heights in Blunsdon, Judge Jason Taylor QC said that the 25-year-old made a “conscious decision” to tend to the plants which he “must have [known] would end up on the streets in significant quantities”.

Despite being asked to consider a community order or suspended sentence, Judge Taylor said any sentence bar immediate custody would “not be consistent with my public duty”.

Kapja was jailed for 16 months.