A takeaway boss is on trial at Bradford Crown Court accused of running a £400,000 network of cannabis factories.

Hoang Ming Yeung was involved in a plot to rake in vast sums of money by turning rented houses – including one in Thorne Lane, Heaton – into drugs farms, a jury was told yesterday.

Yeung, 36, of Potternewton Grove, Stainbeck, Leeds, denies conspiracy to produce cannabis between September 2007 and August 2009.

Prosecutor Paul Reid said the Crown’s case was that he was involved in four different factories, in Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield.

Yeung, who owns the Blue Sky Chinese takeaway in Raynville Road, Bramley, told the police after his arrest he did not know what cannabis was, the court was told.

Mr Reid said officers discovered a dismantled cannabis factory in Easterley Road, Harehills, Leeds, in September 2007.

Yeung and two other men were arrested nearby. The defendant denied any knowledge of growing cannabis.

On January 8, 2009, police searched a house in Thorne Lane and seized more than 500 cannabis plants with a potential yield of 20.5 kilograms and a street value of more than £175,000.

Mr Reid alleged that the “gardener” arrested at the property was linked by mobile phone evidence to Yeung.

Police also found a notebook written in Chinese containing Yeung’s home and business addresses, the jury heard.

Two more cannabis factories were discovered in Wakefield, Mr Reid said.

The first, in Lingwell Gate Crescent, contained more than 440 cannabis plants, some flowering and some a follow-on crop, with a potential yield of 11 kilograms, worth about £100,000 if sold on the street.

The second, in Denby Dale Road, was worth a potential £107,000, the court was told.

Yeung was arrested in October 2009 and denied having anything to do with the factories.

He said he did not know what cannabis was and that the Thorne Street address meant nothing to him.

But Mr Reid told the jury evidence pointed to Yeung being an organiser of the cannabis business.

The trial continues.