A FATHER of three who had a potential £14,000 cannabis farm at his home, has been spared jail for his children – because his partner is already behind bars.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Garry Herbert, 25, who was growing 35 plants in a sophisticated hydroponic system, expected to get a kilo of drugs from the operation in his attic in Bacup.

The hearing was told Herbert, whose partner Catherine Mulcahy was sent to prison for her part in a club fight, owned up on the basis it was the first time he had grown cannabis, he was going to use some of the drugs herself and would have sold some to friends to cover his costs.

The defendant, of Clough Road, Bacup, had admitted producing cannabis, last May 16. He was given 52 weeks in jail, suspended for two years, with 80 hours unpaid work.

Judge Beverley Lunt said: “How you have time to become addicted to drugs when you have three baby children I have no idea and I have never heard of anything so selfish in my life.”