A man was forced into cannabis farming as immigration rules prevented him from working, a court heard.

Marjan Qazimi, 24, had claimed political asylum after arriving in the UK illegally.

The Albanian man's advocate, Gareth James, told Oxford Crown Court that Home Office rules prevented him from working while his asylum claim was being processed.

“It was out of desperation that he started looking for casual work off the books,” Mr James said.

“It was through that he met this other Albanian man [named in court as ‘Fatjon’].

“He was brought to Oxford by this man and told to look after the plants in the property. Deliveries of food were made by this man to the address on a fairly regular basis, about once a week.”

When the police raided the property in Oxford they found 69 cannabis plants. The plants could have produced a crop weighing more than three kilos, the court heard.

Sentencing him to eight months’ imprisonment, Recorder John Hardy QC said: “You have pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to an offence which amounts to in effect being the gardener at a cannabis factory.

“You are of previous good character, which I take into account, but the offence is so serious that a custodial sentence must be imposed.”

Qazimi, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to producing cannabis. He is likely to be deported once he has served his sentence.

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