A CANNABIS farmer has been jailed for ten months for growing an illegal crop that could have netted him £21,000.

Police found 30 plants of skunk cannabis in Daniel Frost’s Sherburn-in-Elmet home when they raided it on July 30, said David Garnett, prosecuting at York Crown Court.

They also found artificial lights, special ventilation, a feeding system and other equipment. Some of the plants were near harvesting.

Police experts carried out tests on flowering tops from three of the plants and estimated the crop could have produced 2.1 kg of cannabis which could have been sold for between £7,350 and £21,000.

Frost told police he had been growing the plants for about four months.

Frost, 34, of Moor Lane, pleaded guilty to producing cannabis.

Judge Shaun Spencer QC said: “Some considerable care and preparation, purchase of equipment and use of equipment had gone into the matter. For a case of this kind, a custodial sentence is inevitable. It is too serious for a community order or a fine.”

Defence barrister Edward Renvoize said Frost had grown the cannabis essentially for himself and may have given some to his brother. He had told police that had the crop been big enough, he may have sold some of it. It was his first crop and he did not know how it would turn out.

Frost’s marriage had broken up shortly before he started growing the cannabis.

“That seems to have been the catalyst for him going into a downward spiral,” the defence barrister said.

“This ridiculous frustrated horticulture in which he engaged also resulted from that time in his life.”

Since the raid, Frost had put his life in order and got himself a job.