A TEENAGER found hiding in the loft at a Bradford cannabis farm had photos on his phone of the crop and him holding bundles of cash.

Rahodon Geca was tending 86 plants at the commercial grow in Southmere Road, Great Horton; and 42 roots from an earlier crop were also seized from the house.

Geca, 19, an Albanian national, at first ran a defence under the Modern Slavery Act but then pleaded guilty to production of cannabis.

He was jailed for 17 months at Bradford Crown Court by Judge Jonathan Gibson who told him it wasn’t his decision if he will be deported.

Prosecutor Graham O’Sullivan said that police officers went to the house on March 9 because they had received information that a wanted male was there. When no one answered their knocking, they forced their way into the property and discovered the cannabis farm.

There were 86 plants in all, on three floors, with the remains of the earlier crop of 42 plants in pots.

Mr O’Sullivan said there were lights, fans and transformers and the electricity supply had been bypassed. Dirty footmarks leading to the loft led the police to discover Geca hiding in there under a pile of boxes.

Two phones were seized from him containing the photos and messages relating to the progress of the crop.

A text sent that day ordered him to “get in a deep hole in the roof,” presumably because the police were outside.

The court heard that the grow had a potential yield of 4.41 kilos.mGeca’s barrister, Jo Shepherd, said he was trafficked into the UK by smugglers he owed £18,000. He was at first in London but taken to the cannabis farm in Bradford to work off the debt.

He was living at the address and obeying orders from those higher up the chain.

Geca’s parents in Albania were very disappointed in him, Miss Shepherd said.

He was only 18 at the time of his arrest and he had no previous convictions here or in his homeland.

Miss Shepherd said the bundles of cash Geca was photographed with were Albanian lek and “pretty worthless” currency here. He had been held in custody on lockdown since his arrest.

Judge Gibson said the grow was on a commercial scale with numerous plants.

But he accepted that Geca did not set it up and that he was working there to pay off a debt.