A CHINESE man has been charged with cultivating cannabis after police discovered a drugs factory in a derelict pub.

Wei Lin, 26, of no fixed address, appeared before Burnley magistrates accused of growing cannabis at the Derby pub, Scotland Road, Nelson.

He was accused of cultivating 2,000 plants between October 1 2007 and January 29 this year and also abstracting electricity.

The justices decided the case should be heard at crown court.

Lin, who is believed to be an illegal immigrant, was remanded in custody until February 6 and will face committal proceedings to the crown court on March 12 .

More than 1,200 mature plants were discovered in the Derb, on Tuesday morning after a tip-off.

Despite the size of the discovery, which police said was one of the largest to be discovered in East Lancashire, no one else is actively being sought in connection with the discovery.

Clear up operations commenced on Tuesday and were due to finish yesterday due to problems with electricity.

Complex lighting and ventilation systems were also discovered, used to grow the class C drug. Detective Inspector Sion Hall, of Burnley. said: "The cannabis plants will be taken away and destroyed.

"Some of the plants were removed last night but we could not get them all cleared because of problems with the electricity.

"We have charged a man with the cultivation of cannabis.

"He may well be an illegal immigrant and are trying to confirm this with immigration.

"We do not know how long the plants had been cultivated.

"There were seedlings and mature plants so we do not know if this was the first crop or the tenth crop."

Police are still trying to establish who owned the building, which has been sub-let a number of times.