A MAN caught tending a £44,000 cannabis farm in Bradford was driving around in a BMW and being paid £200 a week.  

Lithuanian national Tomas Gaudesius was jailed for 12 months at Bradford Crown Court after coming to the United Kingdom in search of a better life. 

Gaudesius, 24, was arrested at the farm on Redwood Crescent in Bierley shortly after 7am on February 20, prosecutor Philip Adams said. 

Police who went to the house to execute a search warrant under the Misuse of Drugs Act apprehended him trying to leave. 

The house had been converted into a cannabis farm with a total of 103 plants in the living room and three bedrooms. 

Mr Adams said they were growing in tents under strong lights, with electric fans and ducting. There were water butts on the landing and the electricity meter had been bypassed.  

The farm had a potential yield of 5.23 kilos of skunk cannabis with a street value in excess of £44,000 and a wholesale value of between £22,000 and £31,000. 

Mr Adams said the crop in the living room was two weeks from harvest while the plants upstairs were ten weeks from readiness, meaning it was a staggered grow on a commercial scale. 

Gaudesius told the police he had been at the house for about a year after being taken there and put to work tending the plants. 

Fuad Arshad said in mitigation that he was homeless and vulnerable and may have been exploited. 

The court heard that he was sleeping on a mattress in the kitchen in very basic conditions. 

Mr Arshad said Gaudesius had been held on remand in HMP Leeds for 163 days. 

He had no right to live in the UK, his Visa had long expired, and he wanted to be returned to his homeland. 

Judge Jonathan Rose said he came here in August 2021 looking for a better life and thought it could be acquired by involving himself in crime. He had lived and worked at the farm for almost the whole time that he had been in this country. 

He wasn’t detained at the address and he had the use of a BMW car. Although his living circumstances were modest, he was being paid £200 a week, a not inconsequential amount. 

Judge Rose said those higher up the chain of command would have made a huge amount of money from his efforts. His was a lesser role but he was a willing partner over a substantial period of time. 

The court made a deprivation order on the BMW and the crop will be destroyed.