Cannabis farmer 'paying debt to people smugglers'

Jurgen Koxhaj was looking after 120 cannabis plants (file photo)

An Albanian cannabis farmer who said he was forced to grow drugs to pay back people smugglers has been jailed for eight months.

Jurgen Koxhaj, 23, was found in a house in Middlesbrough with 120 cannabis plants, Teesside Crown Court has heard.

He said he had been at the house for a month and was feeding the plants to pay off a £3,000 debt for passage on a boat which illegally brought him to the UK.

Koxhaj admitted one count of producing a class B drug.

The court heard police raided a home on Marton Road on 29 April and found Koxhaj inside with 120 plants spread across four rooms, including in the loft, with the property's electricity having been bypassed.

The plants were "healthy and in good condition" and would provide regular yields of between £33,000 and £100,000, prosecutor Cole Cockburn said.

Koxhaj said he had been "pressured" into feeding and watering the plans by people smugglers to whom he owed money, the court heard.

Judge Chris Smith said Koxhaj had lodged an application for asylum but it was "unlikely" it would be approved, so he would probably be deported back to Albania after completing his sentence.

"You should go back to Albania and make a life there with your fiancée," the judge told Koxhaj, adding: "I hope you can find work there as a chef."

The judge said the bypassing of the electricity at the house was "dangerous", but accepted Koxhaj had not done it.

He said Koxhaj played a lesser role in an organisation "producing significant quantities of cannabis".