A MAN who was in charge of a potential £40,000 cannabis farm at a house in Great Harwood is behind bars for 22 weeks.

Burnley Crown Court heard Anthony McCombs, 33, was said to have been ‘ensnared’ when he was homeless and vulnerable.

He expected to get £15,000 for his services after two years, as well as a roof over his head, but ended up calling police instead, because he claimed he received death threats.

McCombs, who has mental health issues and is now said to be suicidal, was said by his counsel to have been the gardener for the 100-plant enterprise at a property rented for the purpose on Lewis Street.

He was arrested on May 27, when he contacted police. The defendant had admitted producing cannabis and had been committed for sentence by magistrates.

He was sent to jail after a judge said he must have known the sort of risks he was taking.

Stephen Parker, prosecuting, said McCombs told police he had been growing 80 plants for a man he owed £30,000 to.

The defendant claimed the man had threatened to kill him when he told him he no longer wanted to be involved, and he believed it. That was why he had called the police. Mr Parker said police went to the house, the locks had been changed.

Police found 100 cannabis plants which could have yielded drugs worth £40,000 on the streets.

The defendant had a criminal record, but no previous convictions for drugs.

McCombs’s barrister said he had been ‘hopelessly addicted’ to various illicit substances when he got involved in what he understood was a gardener’s role, against his better judgement.

The defendant, who paid all the bills at the property, had played no role in furtherance of the operation.

Judge Graham Knowles, QC, told the defendant: “Your role was not only to grow these things, but to be the front man, to take the consequences if the balloon went up.

“You say that you had grown two previous crops that had been stolen and you took the consequences for those you were working for.”