AN Albanian man with no English managed to say “f***” when the police came knock-ing at the big cannabis farm in Bradford where he was working.

Slitsano Hazizolli was tending to 197 plants of all sizes at the house in Acton Street, Bradford Moor, where all four floors had been turned over to growing the drug.

Hazizolli, 22, answered the door when the police arrived on January 3 about an unrelated matter, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Prosecutor Rebecca Young said he was agitated and exclaimed “f***” as the officers immediately became aware of a pungent smell of cannabis, heard fans whirring and saw the bright lights from the heat lamps.

Cannabis was growing from the basement to the attic with evidence of cut plants suggest-ing a previous harvest.

Hazizolli, who was living at the address, had a wallet containing £265, phones, foreign currency and his passport with him.

The electricity meter had been bypassed and his fingerprints were found on wall-mounted fans, Miss Young said.

He made no comment when questioned by the police.

Howard Shaw conceded in mitigation that it was a professional cannabis growing opera-tion with the house taken over to grow the drug for commercial use.

But there was no evidence that Hazizolli had any wider role in the criminality. He was acting as a gardener out of naivety and his limited role was demonstrated by his response when the police arrived.

Mr Howard said that with no command of English, Hazizolli was in a poor position to do anything else but tend the plants.

He had come to the United Kingdom illegally in a lorry to earn money his family owed to a gang in Albania.

He had been in the country less than a month when he was arrested and he had since been remanded in Leeds Prison.

Mr Shaw said Hazizolli was living in London when he first came here but it was an iso-lated existence with just one friend. All his family were in Albania.

“He is a classic “gardener” acting for more sophisticated criminals,” Mr Shaw said.

The judge, Recorder Felicity Davies, asked Mr Shaw how the defendant could say “f***” on his arrest if he knew no English.

Mr Shaw thought that most criminals worldwide would be familiar with the word.

Recorder Davies conceded that Hazizolli was “exploited to a degree.” But his money, passport and phone suggested a degree of freedom.

He was jailed for 16 months.