Cannabis farm stole electricity from cafe

THE mystery of ever-rising electricity bills at a Bristol cafe was solved when it emerged power was being used for a cannabis farm next door.

Monthly bills at the Acorn Cafe, in Coalpit Heath, sky-rocketed from £249 to £2,000, Bristol

Crown Court heard.

Police who forced entry to a locked unit next door found two Albanian men being used as gardeners to nurture a high-value cannabis crop.

And it transpired one of them was wanted for being a gardener in an identical set-up in Essex.

Ergi Veliu, 22, and Eduardo Vishaj, 47, both homeless, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis.

Judge William Hart jailed Veliu for 16 months and Vishaj for eight months. He told the pair: “I have to sentence you for your involvement in two cannabis operations, both producing cannabis on a commercial scale.

“Veliu’s case is more serious as you’ve done it twice.”

The court heard that the men, both illegal entrants into the UK, will be subject to deportation.

Ramin Pakrooh, prosecuting, said Veliu was a gardener at a cannabis farm in Westcliff-onSea, Essex, in July 2019.

In that operation 119 cannabis plants said to be of “exceptional” quality were being grown, with a street value as high as £150,000.

While one man connected to the site was handed a suspended jail term, Veliu remained at large for six months.

But the court heard he was with Vishaj when police forced entry into a unit next to the Acorn Cafe.

Mr Pakrooh said: “They were locked in. They were living in a tiny living area, each with a single bed, in squalid and basic conditions.

“Electricity from next door had been bypassed.

“It was a sophisticated set-up and the unit’s sole purpose was for the cultivation of cannabis.”

In this operation 307 cannabis plants were found, said to have a street value as high as £246,000, the court heard.

Neither man commented when interviewed by police.

Mr Pakrooh said the prosecution case was that both men were gardeners, operating under direction, locked in and reliant on others for food.

Matthew Comer, defending Veliu, said his client arrived in the UK in the back of a lorry and had been told he would work in the construction industry – before being told to cultivate cannabis.

Anthony Bignall, defending Vishaj, said: “He had no experience and was coerced.

“He was locked into room with plants and made to get on with it.

“He is right at the bottom of the range. He had nothing to do with the abstraction of electricity and nothing to do with the set-up.”