A police raid on a terraced house in Bradford uncovered a cannabis set-up which could have produced commercial quantities of the drug.

Bradford Crown Court heard today how officers acting on information carried out observations on the property in Poplar Avenue, in the Horton Bank Top area of the city.

On the morning of February 16, police made their move by forcing entry to the house.

Prosecutor Philip Adams told the court that most of the house had been adapted for growing cannabis. Only the kitchen and living room remained untouched, the court was told.

Illegal Albanian immigrant Sokol Krraba, aged 32, was arrested as he tried to flee the house via the back door and during a search of the property officers found cannabis plants as well as a range of equipment.

The court heard that the equipment included powerful lamps, transformers, fans and timers.

In the cellar of the property, officers found 50 empty plant pots, some harvested material on the floor and a total of 32 mature cannabis plants.

Two first floor bedrooms contained more than 70 mature plants, the court heard.

In the attic, there were 105 young plants and three trays containing seedlings.

Krraba, who had no previous convictions, claimed to have only been working at the property as a “gardener” for 10 days.

In a prepared statement in his police interview, Krraba said he had been trafficked from Albania to the UK as a result of being in debt.

Krraba pleaded guilty to a charge of producing cannabis and today he was jailed for nine months.

Recorder Gurdial Singh said the cannabis plants could have yielded more than five kilos of the drug, but he accepted that Krraba had limited involvement in the operation.

“This crop had a considerable value to someone and without a gardener to tend it, it could not be grown,” he told Krraba via an interpreter.

“The only mitigation in this case is your guilty plea and the fact that you have no previous convictions.”

The incident is the latest in a long succession of recent court cases in which cannabis farmers from abroad have been sentenced after being caught tending large drugs factories in the Bradford district.

Previously, councillors and community leaders have warned of the dangers of such operations, with the electricity meter often bypassed and the electrics altered, putting nearby residents at fire risk.