A CANNABIS farmer jumped out of bed when the police turned up with a search warrant, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Albi Cekici, an illegal immigrant from Albania, was working at the £82,000 grow in Farnham Road, Great Horton, Bradford, tending to the 150 plants.

He was jailed for 13 months by Judge Andrew Hatton who told him he had already served his sentence on remand in custody and then on an electronically monitored curfew.

Cekici, 28, of Laisteridge Lane, Bradford, pleaded guilty to production of cannabis on June 22 last year and to entering the UK without leave in contravention of the Immigration Act.

Prosecutor Rebecca Young told the court that police officers acting on intelligence attended at the house with a search warrant.

Cekici, who jumped out of his bed near the front door, was the only one present at the address.

Officers could hear fans whirring, smell cannabis and see that wiring and junction boxes had been interfered with when the electricity supply was bypassed.

Two upstairs rooms and a room on the third floor had been turned into a cannabis farm.

Miss Young said there were 141 growing plants, plants hanging up to dry and a further small follow-on crop.

The wholesale value of the cannabis was £57,480 and the street value was up to £82,000.

Cekici had his passport with him, along with money and a phone. The keys to the house were in the locks on the inside, meaning he was free to come and go.

His barrister, Timothy Jacobs, said he had spent two months in custody following his arrest and then been bailed on an electronically monitored curfew order.

Although he was at risk of deportation, no order had been made and he was able and willing to do unpaid work.

He could not be legally employed in the country so he was relying on the financial sup-port of family members from overseas.

Judge Hatton said that Cekici was in the UK illegally and had come here to better himself economically.

He had ended up running the cannabis farm and there was no element in his case of human trafficking; he had the keys to the house, money and a phone.

Judge Hatton said cannabis caused misery to users of the drug and their families.

“People like you are doing this for short-term financial gain but causing misery for many more,” he said.

But he conceded that although Cekici was earning money tending to the plants, his fi-nancial benefit would not have been significant.