AN ILLEGAL immigrant man who hid in a roll of loft insulation when police raided a cannabis factory in Kenton was sentenced to three years in prison last week.

Following a tip-off from EDF Energy, who informed police that there was an unusually high amount of electricity being used at the Frances Road home, police discovered around 150 mature cannabis plants, around 100 seedlings and several bags of harvested herbal cannabis ready to sell on May 16, this year.

Officers searched the house and found Tran Binh, who told police he was 17, hiding in the loft, wrapped in insulation.

He was charged with being concerned in the production of a Class B controlled drug and was remanded in custody.

The Vietnamese national, who later admitted to actually being 31-years-old, denied being involved in the cultivation of the drugs but was found guilty by a jury at Harrow Crown Court on Thursday last week (September 15).

During his trial the court heard how police discovered wiring, timing units and powerful halogen lights for incubation in many of the rooms, whilst windows had been blacked out and reflective material had been put on the walls.

There was also a hazardous electrical wiring suspended over a bath full of dark brown liquid fertiliser, with an electrical water pump in the bath being used to direct the feed to plants.

Binh claimed he had been taken to the house only the evening before his arrest by two unknown men, who had offered him some work to cut some plants for them.

He said he thought they were medicinal herbs and did not know them to be cannabis. He added that he then went to sleep and did not do anything in relation to the plants but forensic examination of the house found Binh’s left thumb-print on a roll of silver tape, which was the same type of tape used to place material on the walls and windows as part of the cannabis factory operation.

He did admit his real age during the trial however and confessed that he had entered the country illegally.