Van Nguyen travelled to the UK from his native Vietnam after racking up "serious debts" and was put to work as a "gardener" in a large scale cannabis farm. But the police ultimately caught the 43-year-old red-handed alongside hundreds of plants in the "sophisticated" factory.
Nguyen, who has no previous convictions, was arrested at the scene. Ken Heckle, defending, told the court: "The defendant is a married man with three young children. "He did not know what was going to take place in this country. He certainly did not think it was a criminal enterprise but, once in this country and with the knowledge of what he was to do, he accepts that he involved himself."