Asylum seeker offered £2,000 a month to work on cannabis farm

AN asylum seeker was offered £2,000 a month to tend to a huge cannabis farm, a court heard.

Ledjo Basha, 25, was a ‘gardener’ at the farm, which was installed in a semidetached house on Palatine Road, Didsbury.

Police found cannabis with a potential worth of £100,000, and a ‘sophisticated’ set up within the property.

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There was 275 cannabis plants, found in five different locations within the building.

Officers also discovered 77 lights, at least 10 fans and 76 transformers as part of the cannabis farm, prosecutor Saul Brody told Manchester Crown Court. The electricity had also been bypassed.

Police forced entry into the property on May 28 and arrested Basha on suspicion of producing cannabis.

In interview, Basha said he had been at the house for less than two months. The court heard he was a ‘gardener’ and had no involvement in setting up the cannabis farm.

Basha had been offered £2,000 a month for the role, but never received any money, he said.

Mr Brody said the ‘significant’ quantities of cannabis were being grown for ‘commercial’ use.

Basha’s lawyer Eleanor Gleeson said said the defendant can’t speak English. He followed court proceedings with the help of an Albanian interpreter.

“He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he said he did so out of desperation,” Ms Gleeson said.

“He moved to this country to make a better life, and unfortunately that has not been the case.”

Sentencing Basha to seven months in prison, Judge Nicholas Dean QC told him: “You didn’t play an important part in the growth of this cannabis. But this was a significant and commercial growth, and you took the job knowing that you would be tending to a growth of cannabis.”

The judge said it was possible that Basha, an asylum seeker, may be deported after serving his sentence, but that this is for other authorities to decide on.

Basha, of Palatine Road, pleaded guilty to producing a class B drug.