Back pain sufferer avoids jail over cannabis factory

A man who grew 29 cannabis plants in his home has escaped a jail sentence after the judge accepted he suffered from bad back pain.

Police discovered the factory growing in Shaun Waters’ home in Waterlooville, Hants, after his lodger let officers in for an unrelated matter.

Waters, 50, admitted producing a class B drug for “back problems”.

Sentencing Waters at Portsmouth Crown Court to an eight-month sentence suspended for two years and a two-month curfew, judge Robert Hill said: “If it were not for that [back pain] you’d be going to prison.”