A MAN found living inside a drugs factory which was producing more than £200,000 of cannabis has been jailed.

Anh Nguyen was caught by police inside the two-storey cottage surrounded by hundreds of cannabis plants.

At his sentencing at Oxford Crown Court he was described as a 'gardener' of the drugs working for other criminals.

The 25-year-old of no fixed abode had already pleaded guilty at Oxford Magistrates' Court to one count of producing cannabis.

He appeared for sentencing at the crown court yesterday.

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Outlining the case prosecutor Cathy Olliver said police went to an address on Wood End, Little Horwood, near Milton Keynes on April 17 this year.

Inside they discovered a cannabis drugs factory with Nguyen the sole occupant.

He was arrested and an investigation of the drugs that were growing revealed there were 553 plants inside the cottage.

Prosecutors said that those plants represented a value of approximately £221,000.

Police also found £400 in cash at the property.

He was not immediately interviewed about the drugs find because of a lack of an interpreter for the Vietnamese national.

The court heard that Nguyen has no other previous convictions in the UK or in his native Vietnam.

In mitigation defence barrister Peter Du Feu said that his client came to the UK illegally eight years ago.

He said Nguyen had lost his job working on a building site since the Covid-19 pandemic and he had met others who offered him a roof and employment to tend to the drugs.

He stayed at the cannabis factory for two weeks acting as a 'gardener' for the drugs

Sentencing, Judge Maria Lamb said there had been a 'substantial' amount of cannabis found at the address in the raid.

Nguyen was jailed for 16 months and must pay a statutory victim surcharge.