A illegal immigrant caught fleeing an industrial scale cannabis factory set up in a Bradford house told police she thought the 526 drugs plants she was nurturing were flowers.

Vietnamese national Lan Le was jailed for six months at Bradford Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to production of the Class B drug.

Le, who is pregnant, arrived in the UK in the back of a lorry and will be deported by the Border Agency as soon as possible.

She was arrested on September 28 when she tried to escape by the back door of the house on Grove Terrace, Great Horton.

Prosecutor John Bull said Le, 37, had the keys to the property and was living there looking after the multi-thousand pound cannabis factory.

Le told the police she paid £20,000 to be illegally ferried into the UK in a lorry about 18 months ago.

She first went to Birmingham and then on to Bradford.

She told the police she was destitute and agreed to look after the cannabis plants, at first thinking they were flowers.

Mr Bull said it was an industrial scale cannabis operation, powered by 68 hydroponic lamps.

In mitigation, Le’s solicitor advocate, Anne-Marie Hutton, said her client had been interviewed by Border Agency officials at the police station and in New Hall Prison where she was being held.

She wanted to return to Vietnam in time to have her baby there.

Sentencing Le, the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, said the offence would normally attract a prison sentence measured in years, but she had played a lesser role and was keen to leave the country as soon as possible.