A ‘NAIVE’ man, said to have been persuaded to set up two cannabis farms, growing drugs with a potential street value of more than £41,000, is behind bars for two years.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Carl Watson, 38, had been found growing 166 plants, which could have been worth £28,000, at a property on Piccadilly Road, Burnley, last October.

He also had 730 small bottles of the drug GHB, worth up to £1,000.

Watson had been arrested and bailed and then struck again in the town.

Months later, he had been cultivating 105 cannabis plants at a premises on Sefton Terrace. He was questioned by police again, after walking into the police station of his own volition and owning up.

The drugs would have been worth £13,600, if the plants had all been harvested.

The defendant, of no fixed address, who now faces a proceeds of crime hearing, had admitted two counts of producing cannabis and one of possessing GHB with intent to supply.

Sarah Statham, prosecuting, said police raided the first house and discovered cannabis plants which, had they all been successfully cultivated, would have yielded 2.8 kilos of the drug.

At the second house, the home of a relative of the defendant, 1.36 kilos of cannabis could have been produced.

Richard Taylor, defending, said Watson, who had been on remand, was a man of low intelligence but while in custody he had been studying English, was quite proud he had accepted his difficulties and was getting help.

Watson had moved from one house to another over the last few years. His family was in court to support him.

Mr Taylor said the defendant, who was ‘naive’, had been persuaded to grow the cannabis and after the GHB was seized he was assaulted.

He was then persuaded to commit the next offence while on bail.