AN Albanian cannabis farmer who was looking after a high value crop in a town flat has been jailed for eight months.

Jehmir Memia scrapped with a police woman when officers stormed the building where he and colleagues were tending the plants.

The 28-year-old, who came to the UK in the back of a lorry, was one of three men cultivating the plants which could have yielded 20kg of the drug.

Despite hearing that he was not a key player in the operation and wanted to return home to his family, a judge imposed a custodial sentence.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how police were made aware of the cannabis farm in Westcott Place by neighbours in early June.

“These factories do emit a strong smell. Those who live in the area took note of it. It was in close proximity to a gym,” she said.

“Officers went round and they could see a number of plants in the flat. They found what they described as a quite sophisticated set up.”

She said there were around 500 mature plants growing in a hydroponics set-up with the building lined in polythene to keep in the heat.

The electricity meter had also been bypassed to not only get the power for nothing but also not to alert the supplier to the amount being used.

While three of the rooms in the flat had been given over to the plants the other was being used by the three people who worked there.

The defendant was the only person arrested after others jumped from a window when the police entered the building.

Miss Squire said he was involved in a struggle with a woman officer, who received a scratch to her arm as a result.

Memia, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of cannabis.

Rob Ross, defending, said his client spoke very little English and was clearly a gardener, which is the lowest level in the hierarchy of a cannabis factory.

“He very obviously hadn’t paid the debt to the traffickers who brought him in, having come on the back of a lorry,” he said.

“He was pressured into doing this. His one desire is that the Home Office will take action and deport him back to Albania.

“He came here from a very, very, poor family in Albania in the hope of finding a better life.”

The court heard that he claimed he had a to repay a debt of £9,000 for being smuggled into the UK.

Jailing him, Judge Robert Pawson said: “There is an aggravating feature in that you struggled with a woman police office on arrest. It is quite clear from what I have heard that this was an ongoing commercial operation. For example the electrics had been modified and there were hydroponics in place.”