A cannabis farmer worked for nothing but bed and board, Oxford Crown Court heard.

Thang Vu, 42, was found tending around 100 to 150 cannabis plants at a property in Weldon Road, Marston.

Neighbours had reported their suspicions that the house was being used to grow the class B drug.

And when police raided the property on July 8 they found Vu with scores of cannabis plants. The loft was being used to store harvested crop.

Prosecutor Alice Aubrey-Fletcher said Vu had given two prepared statements when he was interviewed by officers in the wake of the raid.

He said he’d come to the UK illegally from France around 10 years ago. He was driven to the house and told he would have a job and a place to stay.

Ms Aubrey-Fletcher said: “He wasn’t paid but was given food every two weeks. He had been there for two months. He said he had no choice. He needed to work.”

In a second statement, he said he’d ‘wake the plants up and put them to sleep’. It was his first experience of cultivating cannabis and he had no previous convictions in the UK.

Vu was referred to the Home Office as a potential victim of modern slavery but he had not wanted to take the matter any further.

Alistair Grainger, mitigating, said his client had previously worked on a building site. Although living on the breadline he would send any money he had spare back to relatives in Vietnam.

The defendant had been exploited, his barrister said. “As always, these individuals find themselves vulnerable to this type of operation.”

The cannabis farmer was likely to be deported once he had served his sentence. He welcomed the prospect of deportation, Mr Grainger told the court.

Jailing him for 12 months, Judge Ian Pringle QC said: “You have no other known convictions in this country but you have been an illegal immigrant here for some 10 years.

“On July 8, police officers went to your address here in Oxford where they found you occupying that address and also considerable amounts of cannabis plants being reared.

“Indeed, some of those cannabis plants had already been harvested and put into bags.

“The police officers estimated somewhere between 100 and 150 plants and I’m quite satisfied this case falls squarely into category two and that you were playing a lesser role as a gardener.”

Vu, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possession with intent to supply cannabis and producing the class B drug.

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For news updates straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on news@nqo.com or 01865 425 445.