A VIETNAMESE immigrant who lived in a house with a 250-plant cannabis farm has been jailed for two years.

Cuong Nguyen, 18, admitted producing cannabis and was sentenced at Burnley Crown Court after a judge heard the drugs at the house in Lindsay Park, Worsthorne, had a street value of £58,000. He will be deported on his release.

The court was told the £300,000 property was rented from its Burnley landlord last October by a man referred to only as Ben.

However, in April, when owner Simon Entwistle could not contact his tenants, he went round to the property to find his keys did not fit anymore.

Mr Entwistle called police who forced entry to find the house full of cannabis plants and paraphernalia.

Mercedeh Jabbari, prosecuting, said pots, plants and a vent were found inside. Three bedrooms and the lounge had been turned into drugs factories.

Police found 142 medium-sized plants and another 112 baby plants with a total street value of £58,000.

In interview, Nguyen admitted he was an illegal immigrant but that he was in the property to switch lights on and off and did not make any money from the set-up, the court was told.

However, Nguyen, who said he came to Burnley to be a chef, had tried to flee the house from a window when police arrived but injured his ankle.

Martin Hackett, defending, said Nguyen wanted to be deported to Vietnam.

Sentencing him to two years, Judge Beverley Lunt said: “It must be plainly understood by anybody that is prepared to take care of illegal drugs, especially when they are worth this much, that they will be sent to prison for a very long time.”