TWO men have each been jailed for 20 months for tending a £600,000 industrial scale cannabis farm busted by the police at an old mill in the district.

The 1,750 plant factory would have produced up to 85 kilos of cannabis for commercial sale, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Vietnamese nationals, Canh Pham, 37, and Ha Xuan Ngo, 41, both of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to production of the Class B drug at The Mill, Ashley Lane, Shipley, on November 15 last year.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sharp told the court today that both men were illegal immigrants but investigations revealed that neither had been trafficked.

Pham had returned to the UK after being deported.

"He was a free agent, at least until he got to Bradford," Mr Sharp said.

Police acting on a tip-off about a strong smell of cannabis forced their way into the semi-derelict mill.

They found several people in it, despite it being "tinned up" with metal sheeting to keep it secure.

Pham was found hiding on the third floor and Ngo was arrested the next day after escaping the building.

He came to Britain in 2007 and was transported to Shipley from London to join Pham who was already working at the mill.

Mr Sharp said the factory was "an industrial scale set-up" with four large rooms housing the cannabis plants.

The walls and floor were plastic sheeted, the electricity supply had been illegally by-passed and there were large-scale, high-powered lights.

The defendants were living in squalid conditions with their food and a phone provided.

They were not paid wages and they were not allowed by their drug bosses to leave the mill.

Pham's barrister, Peter Hampton, said if the factory was on an industrial scale it was "more Booths than Walmart."

Pham fell for the lure of the bright lights of the western world but ended up living in squalor and prevented from setting foot outside the mill.

He had made no money to pay off his debt to those who brought him to the UK or to send back to his family.

"Those at the top of the tree would look at him as the compost from which the tree is grown," Mr Hampton said.

Nigel Jamieson, for Ngo, said he too was tempted by the promised luxuries of the western world.

Judge Peter Benson said the defendants came to the UK speaking no English and vulnerable to exploitation.

"Any court is bound to have some sympathy for your position but it must be understood that anybody who plays a role in the large scale production of cannabis must expect a significant custodial sentence," he told them.

MORE TOP STORIES