A man who single-handedly grew two commercial scale cannabis crops worth potentially around a quarter of a million pounds has been jailed for four and a half years.

Lyndon Haley set up the factories at two houses in Calderdale to pay off a debt run up to feed his £100 a day cocaine addiction, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Haley, 37, of Ovenden Way, Ovenden, Halifax, pleaded guilty to two offences of production of the Class B drug.

Prosecutor Clare Walsh said the first grow was discovered at an address in Clare Street on July 28, 2019.

Three rooms had been turned into a sophisticated grow with lighting, fans and filters. The windows were covered and there was a 400 litre water butt on the first floor.

Miss Walsh said the mature plants would have yielded up to £44.571 in street deals. A second grow of 252 plants in propagators uplifted the potential value of the crop to £137,000.

Haley told the police he was growing the crop to give to drug dealers he owed money to.

He was released under investigation and three months later he was caught at a second grow he had set up, this time in the town’s Diamond Street.

Again, he was using an end terrace property and this time the cellar and three bedrooms had been turned over to the growing of cannabis.

Holes had been drilled in the steps and the walls and there were three 400 litre water butts in the bathroom. The police also seized timers, fans and filters, Miss Walsh stated.

The estimated value of the first grow at the address was £49,542, with a follow-on crop with a potential financial yield of £50,400.

Haley had 31 convictions for 63 offences but nothing for similar matters, the court was told.

In mitigation, it was said that he had been a cocaine user for 20 years and was in the grip of an addiction when he committed the offences.

He had spent every penny of his Universal Credit on his £100 a day habit and borrowed money from drug dealers, racking up a large debt.

His was “a one man operation” and he would not have received any money from the crops for himself.

Judge Jonathan Rose jailed Haley for 22 months for the first crop, with 32 months to run consecutively for the second grow.

“These were professional set-ups with a significant yield for commercial use,” he said.

The crops could have started fires that endangered the neighbours or attracted violent criminals intent on stealing the plants, Judge Rose said.

He set a timetable for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.