Two Vietnamese men caught tending a cannabis grow in an apparently disused County Durham building face deportation.
Tay Phan and Haong Le were each jailed for 15 months for producing cannabis after a police search of vacant premises in Easington Colliery, County Durham, on June 19.
Acting on local information, officers forced entry to the Bede Street building and found 814 cannabis plants at various stages of growth.
Phan, 41, and Le, 36, were inside when police entered and were arrested.
They each admitted the charge at an earlier Durham Crown Court hearing, on the basis they had acted only as “gardeners” tending the crop, while knowing the operation’s scale.
Police force entry to apparently disused residential premises in Bede Street, Easington Colliery, on June 19
Both appeared for sentencing by video link from Durham Prison, where they had been held on remand.
The Vietnamese defendants were assisted by an interpreter.
Some of the 814 cannabis plants found at various stages of cultivation in apparently disused property in Easington, in June
Prosecutor Paul Cleasby said the Crown did not contest either basis of plea.
Judge Richard Clews had warned the pair that only prison sentences would be considered because of the operation’s scale.
The Home Office will decide whether the pair are deported and, if so, when during their prison sentences this will happen.
The court ordered the seized plants and paraphernalia to be forfeited and destroyed.