A MAN caught tending a Netherton cannabis factory capable of producing an annual crop worth £70,000 has avoided jail.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court, Recorder Martin Butterworth told Darryl Evans, aged 34, he was lucky not to be going straight into custody adding: "I am satisfied other people lead you into this."

Evans was arrested when police raided a house in Hall Lane and found 52 plants being cultivated inside three rooms with a street value of £23,400 and the factory could have turned out three crops in twelve months.

The court heard Evans had not set up the illegal operation and he carried out his role as a gardener to clear debts he had with his own drug dealer.

Evans, of Lea Hall Road, Kitts Green, Birmingham, admitted producing cannabis and he was given a ten month jail term suspended for two years coupled with 18 months supervision.

Shane Crawford, for Evans who was also ordered to attend the drug rehabilitation programme, said his client had been exploited adding: "He was inveigled because of his own use of cannabis to look after what we accept was a significant drug factory."