Cannabis farm worth up to £680,000 found in Hartlepool town centre as Vietnamese national is jailed at Teesside Crown Court

Vietnamese man Le van Cong was caught looking after hundreds of plants valued at up to £680,000 in a flat above an estate agents in York Road in Hartlepool town centre.

Teesside Crown Court heard he had previously worked as a bank branch director in his home country before he lost a lot of money in bad investments and illegally entered the country in a lorry.

He was sent to work in the cannabis farm to pay off his debt to the people smugglers.

It was smashed by police on February 15 who noticed a strong smell of cannabis coming from the address.

Dan Walker, prosecuting, said: “The top two floors were understood to be unoccupied by the landlord.

"In fact, whilst they were unoccupied they were being used for a significant cannabis grow.”

There were 810 plants from saplings to fully grown plants in eight rooms together with heating and lighting to help them grow.

Mr Walker said the plants could have produced between 22.5 and 68 kilograms of cannabis worth between £226,000 and £68,000.

There were four bags of cannabis and evidence of previous harvests.

The electricity meter had been bypassed and police found a notebook with instructions on how to look after the plants.

Cong, 37, was living in the flat and had a key to come and go.

"The defendant is colloquially termed a gardener.”

There was no suggestion the estate agents had any knowledge or involvement of what was going on.

Kelly Clarke, mitigating, said Cong worked in a bank in Vietnam, where he has a wife and young children, in 2018 but he lost a significant amount of money in outside investments.

"He states he had no choice but to come here and work to repay that debt,” she said.

Addressing the court, Cong said he was deeply ashamed adding: “I know what I did was wrong and I apologise for that.”

The judge, Recorder Andrew Dallas, said it was an “unusual” case given Cong's intelligence and white collar background.

“So you must have understood better than many exactly what you were getting yourself into,” he said.

Recorder Dallas said prison was inevitable and sentenced Cong to 19 months.