An illegal immigrant caught hiding in a cupboard at a Bradford cannabis farm has been jailed for eight months.

Albanian national Riza Kociaj, who came to the UK on a false passport, was arrested from the attic of a house in Grove Terrace, Great Horton, that had been turned into a commercial-scale drugs factory.

Kociaj, 30, pleaded guilty to production of cannabis on November 18 last year and was today sentenced at Bradford Crown Court on a video link to Leeds Prison.

Philip Adams, prosecuting, said that the police went to the house at around 7am after receiving information that cannabis was being grown there. There was a strong smell of the drug and when they forced entry, they found that five rooms were being used to cultivate it.

Kociaj was apprehended hiding in a small cupboard in the attic. The police seized £180 in cash from a jacket in a bedroom.

The farm included 76 cannabis plants at an early stage of growth and 100 plants hanging up to dry. The electricity meter had been bypassed.

Mr Adams said the yield from such a growth would be 9,680 grams of cannabis with a street value running into tens of thousands of pounds.

Kociaj told the police he had come to the UK on a false passport two years ago. He was working at the house to pay off a debt. He was under some pressure and he and his family had been threatened.

His barrister, Khadim Al’Hassan, said Kociaj was a parking attendant in Albania but lost his job. He had a wife and a young daughter and he came to this country to earn money for them. His family was very poor, living on £70 a month in Albania.

Kociaj had spent two weeks at the cannabis farm working as a gardener.

When he was released from prison, he was returning home find gainful employment to support his family. He was deeply remorseful and apologised to the court.

Judge Colin Burn said Kociaj was playing a short-term and relatively low level role in the drugs enterprise but it was producing commercial amounts of cannabis.

The drug undoubtedly caused some users mental health problems.

Kociaj was unemployed in Albania and came here without authorisation. He was a family man with no previous convictions wanting to be reunited with his relatives. While he was in custody, their income was little or nothing.

Judge Burn said the jail sentence meant that Kociaj was likely to be released in a couple of months.