Hartlepool Magistrates' Court heard how an officer was visiting the home of Brendan Thomas Gibson in the town's Hood Close with a housing officer when they noticed the smell of cannabis.

Prosecuting, Alan Davison said: "The officer was immediately hit by the smell of cannabis and asked the defendant where the smell was coming from.

"The defendant then handed over a piece of tin foil with cannabis bush in it."

When the officer investigated further, two plants were found growing under lamps in a cupboard under the stairs.

Mr Davison added: "While in the cupboard it was noted that the electricity box had been tampered with."

The defendant was arrested following the incident on May 6 and said the drugs were for his own use.

He also admitted that he had tampered with the electricity box so that it bypassed the supplier, and that he had also reconnected the gas supply himself after it had been cut off.

Gibson, 23, pleaded guilty to charges of producing a Class B drug, abstracting electricity, theft and possessing a Class B drug.

In mitigation, Helen Adams said that the visit was being carried out because he had only just moved into the property.

She said: "It was an unsophisticated set up and they were not healthy plants. It was an experiment – his first attempt and a poor attempt at that."

She added that he had rang the gas suppliers to be reconnected, but that it had not been done.

She said: "He took the desperate step to reconnect the gas himself."
Gibson was given a 12-month community order and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. He was also made to pay £25 costs.