A CANNABIS farmer has been ordered to pay back £5,000 in ill-gotten gains.

Denes Oross was sentenced in October last year to six months imprisonment suspended for a year after admitting growing the class B drug at the Penhill flat he planned to do up and sell on.

Police raided the flat on Burbage Road after a tip-off that Slovakian HGV driver Oross, 45, and his friend were harvesting the plant.

Inside they found 10 adult cannabis plants, fans and an irrigation set-up. Officers discovered three “mother plants” from which cuttings had been taken and evidence of 30 plants that had already been harvested.

The court was told Oross had only recently started growing cannabis. It was intended for his own consumption or for giving to friends. He knew what he was doing was wrong and every time he went to the flat to check on the plants he feared police would be there waiting for him.

A Wiltshire Police financial investigator had calculated his gain from the enterprise as £5,000. Judge Jason Taylor QC gave Oross, who owns property as well as working as a lorry driver, six months to pay up or face a three month stint in prison.

The Slovakian was not present at the hearing at Swindon Crown Court on Friday. He was represented by Robert Ross.