A man who ran a £100,000 cannabis factory in a suburban Swindon house has been jailed for two years and three months.

Thuan Nguyen and a woman were living in the three-bed detached house in Haydon, which had been converted to the growing of the drug.

The upstairs rooms had been given over to the plants and the attic was being prepared to be converted for further cultivation of the substance.

And when police raided the address following concerns from neighbours they found more than 250 plants among the sophisticated set up.

Chris Smyth, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how complaints were made to police about the smell coming from the Tracy Close property.

On Sunday August 5, a PCSO in uniform went and knocked on the door, going round the back when there was no reply. As he looked in a rear window he saw and Asian lady so went back to the front and knocked again.

But no one came tot he door and he heard a cracking of branches from the back and went round to see the woman and a man escaping over fences.

He chased and caught up with the defendant, who told him he was running off because he was an illegal. Inside the house he said there was a double mattress on the floor in the dining room with the living room full of bags of fertiliser.

At the top of the stairs a sheet was hung to form a barrier and both of the main bedrooms were filled with 115 cannabis plants, with 136 seedlings in the third. He said the windows and the door to the en suite had been covered with plastic sheeting and specialist lighting and air cleaners fitted.

Mr Smyth said “The attic was in the process of being prepared as another growing room.”

He said the electricity meter had been diverted after a hole was made in the wall behind the fridge freezer.

The court heard that each plant could yield on average 40g making a total harvest of more than 10kg, with a street value of just over £100,000.

As well as the plants police found 32 lights, seven extractors and four fans to remove the smell from the building.

Nguyen, 36, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis and abstracting electricity between April 1 and August 5.

John Upton, defending, said his client had been in the country for a number of years having entered illegally.

Jailing him Judge Robert Pawson said “Cannabis is a particularly destructive drug because it affects the mental health of people, especially young people, which is why growing it is seen as a serious offence.”

Because of the length of the jail term and his immigration status it is likely that Nguyen will be deported after serving his sentence.