Vietnamese man claimed he was 17 when he is actually 31-years-old

An illegal immigrant found hiding inside the attic of a house converted into a cannabis factory has been jailed for three years.

Tran Binh, from Vietnam, was discovered by the police after they stormed the property in Frances Road, Kenton, in May this year.

More than 150 cannabis plants, 100 seedlings and several bags of harvested herbal cannabis were seized during the raid which took place following a tip off from an electrical company.

Harrow Crown Court heard EDF Energy informed the police of their suspicions due to an unusually high amount of electricity usage and the smell of cannabis from the address.

The electrics of the house had been dangerously modified with powerful halogen lights providing the heat and light needed to grow the class B drugs.

Binh, who is 31 but pretended to be just 17, denied any wrong doing saying he was taken to the house by two men to cut the plants and did not know they were cannabis.

However, his claims was contradicted by forensics which showed Binh’s left thumb-print on a roll of silver tape which had been placed on the walls and windows of the house.

Last week, he was found guilty of being concerned in the production of a Class B controlled drug and sentenced to three years.

DC Paul Talbot from Harrow Police said: “Tran Binh was a ‘gardener’ in a substantial cannabis farm which appeared to have already generated a significant quantity of drugs to feed the market.

“The successful prosecution and subsequent sentence shows that even the manual labourers of these operations can expect a rigorous investigation by the police and firm sentencing by the courts.”