A BOXER’S fledging career has been left in tatters after he was jailed for producing £30,000 worth of cannabis.

Undefeated light heavyweight Joe Jackson-Brown, 23, was stunned when Judge Patrick Eccles QC refused to suspend a jail sentence to spare his career at Oxford Crown Court on Monday.

Jackson-Brown and Scott Gull, 27, were found guilty of producing cannabis and stealing the electricity to do it by a jury on January 19.

Their trial heard how a fire crew went to a house in Bretch Hill, Banbury, in July 2014 after a call from neighbours.

Firefighters discovered no furniture in the house but a room upstairs contained 110 skunk cannabis plants with a street value of about £30,000.

James Meadows, who rented the property, gave police Jackson-Brown’s name and Gull’s fingerprints were found at the scene in February 2015.

Jackson-Brown, of Greenhills Park, Bloxham, was found guilty of one count of producing the Class B drug and one count of abstracting electricity. Gull, of Bretch Hill, Banbury, was found guilty of the same charges.

Sentencing the pair on Monday, Judge Eccles described the set-up as “a commercial operation of some significance”, but he said: “I appreciate that neither of you are sophisticated drug criminals.

“I am reluctant to pass different sentences on the two of you when I know so little about the roles I know you played.”

Speaking to the boxer he added: “In your case, Joe Jackson-Brown, you have a lot to lose. You have obviously started a successful career as a professional boxer and the loss of that will be a great hardship to you.”

Terrance Woods, defending Gull, said: “There is no evidence at all of anything else, any mobile phone evidence or paraphernalia or any financial benefit which is associated with someone involved with that level of crime.”

Craig Rush, defending Jackson-Brown, pleaded with the judge that the sportsman would lose his boxing licence if he was jailed.

He said: “An immediate custodial sentence today will end his career, a suspended sentence may not. The consequences for him are catastrophic if it is an immediate sentence.”

Both men were sentenced to 12 months in prison for drug production and six months for abstracting electricity to run concurrently.

Speaking after the sentencing, Alan Foley, director of the Queensbury Boxing League in which Jackson-Brown used to compete, said: “He was a very, very strong fighter and quick, and he was very, very enthusiastic and hungry to do well, which are key attributes.

“I think Joe had the potential to start going up towards Southern level. He was good, he was a nice lad from all the dealings we had with him.”