A MAN caught guarding a £200,000 cannabis farm at a house in Bradford has been spared an immediate prison sentence after the judge ruled he would not have profited from the 20 kilo yield.

Marek Antoniuk, 29, was living rent free at the address in Boynton Street, West Bowling, in return for tending the 500 cannabis plants discovered when electrical engineers called round to investigate an irregularity in the power supply.

Prosecutor David Ward told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that the electricity meter had been bypassed.

Antoniuk, of Grantham Road, Bradford, pleaded guilty to production of cannabis, between January 1 and February 10 this year.

The court heard that his co-accused had disappeared and was wanted on warrant after claiming the cannabis was for his own use in a basis of plea not accepted by the court.

Mr Ward said the Crown had found no evidence that Antoniuk, a warehouse operative, was funding an extravagant lifestyle from the drug farm.

"They didn't find his Bentley Continental parked outside, or anything like that?" the judge, Recorder Ben Nolan QC, asked.

Antoniuk's barrister, Abdul Shakoor, said he was in work and played a lesser role at the cannabis farm.

Recorder Nolan sentenced Antoniuk to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with 100 hours of unpaid work.

He was ordered to pay £350 prosecution costs.

Recorder Nolan told Antoniuk: "There is no evidence that you would be benefitting from the very profitable sale of the cannabis once it had been harvested. You were acting as caretaker in return for a roof over your head."