AN ILLEGAL Chinese immigrant who became the “gardener” of an £85,000 Angus cannabis cultivation was yesterday jailed for 45 months.

Zhi Peng Lin will also be deported at the end of his sentence back to mainland China from where he fled in the spring of 2005 on a journey which took him to the bungalow in Forfar which was the scene of the major drugs farm.

The asylum seeker had been working to pay his way back to the East where he has a wife and child, initially believing the plants crammed into every room of the house were a crop connected with air fresheners, the court was told.

Lin (31), described as a prisoner at Perth, appeared for sentence before Sheriff Kevin Veal at Forfar, having previously admitted producing cannabis at a house in the town’s South Street between February 10 and March 5 this year.

Fiscal depute Donna Brown told the court how Lin had arrived illegally in the UK in March 2005 and claimed asylum on arrival.

That application was refused and a month later he was granted temporary release under a reporting condition in London, something he failed to comply with.

The court heard Lin found his way to Manchester and had worked in the restaurant trade before being approached by a man there who asked him to go to Angus, and he was put in charge of the cannabis cultivation.

Mrs Brown played the court police video footage taken after drugs officers, acting on a confidential tip-off, raided the house.

Inside they found almost 850 cannabis plants in various stages of growth, which the Crown said had an estimated value of £84,900.

The video showed the house to have all the curtains drawn and inside the property doors, windows and floors were covered with plastic sheeting. Reflective material had been placed on the walls of the various rooms in the house given over to the cannabis farm whilst Lin lived in cramped conditions on a mattress in the kitchen.

The operation also involved a large number of lights, powered by transformers that were placed around the property.

Temperatures inside the house were as high as 96 degrees Fahrenheit and police also found numerous containers of plant growth agents and fertilisers.

Cut cannabis leaves were then laid out in the attic of the house before being bagged up.

“Whilst it is a substantial operation that had been ongoing, there is no suggestion that Mr Lin was the one who was benefiting from it,” said Mrs Brown, who told the court the property had been rented out in September 2006 at a rate of £700 per month, a sum always paid on time and in cash into the owner’s bank account.

“When questioned and charged, he replied ‘I didn’t do anything illegal, it was a friend who asked me to help him’,” Mrs Brown added.

“There was information that was indicative of Mr Lin being promised a full-time job elsewhere if he tended these plants.”

Defence advocate Jonathan Crowe said Lin had come to the UK using money borrowed from what was known as a “snakehead” and was saving to pay that back and allow him to return home to his wife and young family in China.

“Mr Lin had very few options, he had no source of income, no roof over his head and no food.

“He found himself forced into the situation that he would tend to the plants, probably in the dim expectation that he would then get a job,” added Mr Crowe.

“He initially didn’t know the extent of what he was involved in and was told that the (the plants) were to do with some sort of air freshener. He quickly realised that it was to do with something far more sinister and probably to do with controlled drugs. The social work report narrates his resentment for the situation he found himself in.

“People from the east are being used as drugs slaves and I would describe his as one of those drugs slaves who has been prevailed upon to look after this crop of cannabis—he was certainly very far from the top of the tree,” said Mr Crowe.

Jailing Lin, Sheriff Veal said a key factor was the scale of the cultivation and the potential value of the drugs.

“Mr Lin was not the person who funded the establishment of the this operation and he clearly was introduced to a very professionally organised operation when he came to live in Forfar.

“There is a deterrent element to the sentence imposed by the court and it should play an important part in a case such as this,” he said.

The sheriff praised police and drugs squad officers for the case investigation and the video evidence presented to court.

A female detective involved in the search of the property narrated a tour of the property and the sheriff said the detail in the 20-minute recording had certainly been of major assistance to the court.

“I would particularly commend the police investigation here and the production of the DVD, which sets out in stark terms what they found on the premises,” said Sheriff Veal. “I hope these procedures will continue, and maybe extend into other operations.”