Trainee teacher worked on £143,000 cannabis farm at Leeds house to pay for mother's diabetes treatment

Denis Bejdaj borrowed cash to help treat his mother’s type-one diabetes, then thought the quickest way to clear the deficit was to illegally come to England and work, adding to his debt as payment for being smuggled into the country.

Acting on intelligence, police executed a search warrant at the four-storey house on Colenso Grove in Holbeck on June 9, and found the 24-year-old in the cellar of the house. He had two mobile phone and the keys to the property.

More than 130 plants were found in numerous rooms around the property in various stages of growth. There were also lights, fans and transformers and the electricity had been bypassed in what prosecutor Carmel Pearson told Leeds Crown Court was a “professional set up”.

The operation was capable of producing between £63,000 and £143,000 worth of the drug. He gave a prepared statement to police following his arrest, saying his mother was ill and needed to help pay for her treatment.

He was studying to be a teacher in Albania, but had to drop out as a result, but then found he could not pay back the money. He was told that if he travelled to England he could work on a construction site and clear his debt quicker. He said he was initially taken to Manchester but then said he was forced to work at the house in Leeds, and was too afraid to refuse.

Mitigating, Rachel Webster said: “He is still very young and had his whole life ahead of him. He is deeply remorseful, but the only reason he finds himself here is as a result of his mother being poorly.”

She said he was taken to the house where the cannabis farm was already set up. She said that once he is released from prison, he wants to continue his studies and become a teacher.

Judge Simon Phillips KC jailed Bejdaj for 21 months and told him: “It was a substantial cannabis grow and was clearly a professional set up.”