Police accidentally stumbled across £2 million cannabis operation at Leeds terraced home

Officers attended the house on Beechwood Mount in Burley on November 3 last year, looking to arrest a man for an unrelated offence. But when nobody answered the door, despite obvious noises coming from the terraced home, they forced entry, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Inside they found Albanian national Eldo Cullhay, who was not the man they had come for. However, they found seven rooms in the house had been turned over for the growing of cannabis, including lamps, transformers and fans. The electricity had also been bypassed.

Overall, they found 472 plants with a potential yield of almost 50kg worth £495,000. It was heard the crops were capable of being harvested four times a year. Cullhay, 27, told police he was forced to work at the house as a gardener to pay off a debt for money he borrowed “for an operation”, prosecutor Ian Cook told the court.

But Cullhay, who has no previous convictions, had a key to the property and tried to bury his mobile phone in soil when the police burst in.

Mitigating, Glenn Parsons said: “He recounts a well-trodden account of running up a debt and being brought to this country to work. He was brought in the back of a lorry via Belgium.” Mr Parsons said like many, promises of legitimate work in the UK were “overstated”.

Judge Anesh Pema said there was a “degree of freedom” but acknowledged he was under duress to work. He jailed him for nine months.