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Stuart Thompson, 54, decided to let out two barns at his property on Dragon House Farm in Cronton, near Widnes. A police bust in September last year revealed a £2m-a-year cannabis factory with extensive hydroponics.
At first, Mr Thompson thought the tenants were landscape gardeners but challenged them after he became suspicious. However, faced with both threats and an offer of £10,000 per harvest, he decided not just to keep quiet but to help them.
Defence counsel Ray Herman said: “This hard-working and honest man found himself in a position which he reacted to in a way which arose because of a combination of his financial position and threats that were made to him.”
Judge Robert Warnock said he accepted that Mr Thompson had not set up the factory but had soon become a “willing participant”, even buying equipment for the operation, and jailed him for 15 months.
Mr Thompson admitted conspiring to produce cannabis, possessing the drug with intent to supply and abstracting electricity by bypassing the system. According to the Liverpool Daily Post he “appeared to shake in the dock as he was led down”.
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