A jury was not convinced by a cannabis farmer's claim that he was trafficked to this country as a victim of modern slavery.

Phan van Thong was arrested when police called at an address in No Place, near Stanley, on August 26.

Durham Crown Court heard that as officers were trying to open the front door, having had no response to knocks, the defendant attempted to leave via the back door of the property in John Street.

But an officer put his foot in the door and the defendant, who appeared in a state of shock, was detained.

Read more: Pair were dismantling cannabis farm when Durham Police raided premises

Despite having the look of a normal domestic property, with a tea set and television visible through the lounge window, on searching the address, officers found about 100 mature cannabis plants spread around the loft on entering via the hatch.

The loft was fitted with various growing paraphernalia associated with cannabis production.

Van Thong claimed he was brought blindfold in a vehicle to the address, not knowing where it was, and told to water the plants in return for payment.

He claimed he was unaware what he was growing and said he believed they were some sort of, “botanical plants”.

The 27-year-old defendant denied a charge of producing a class B drug and has been on trial over the last two days.

Under cross-examination by prosecution counsel Peter Sabiston, assisted by a Vietnamese interpreter, the defendant said he was brought from his home country without any documentation and accompanied by a female acquaintance of a grandparent all the way to Hungary.

He said the woman disappeared at a railway station in Hungary and so he boarded a train to Germany, where he met some Vietnamese compatriots, who helped him to get to France, where he lived briefly in some woods, before making the Channel crossing by boat to the UK.

Read more: Cannabis 'gardener' fled house in County Durham when police raided

Immigration officials brought the boat ashore in Dover and he was placed, initially, in a detention centre, and then in a hotel, from where he absconded with the help of unknown “westerners”.

He said these were the people who brought him by car to the rented house and told him to tend the plant crop.

Van Thong said he was locked in the property and claimed after escaping the house he was caught by the people who took him to the address in the first place, beaten up and returned to the house.

The court heard he was in possession of telephones, money and there was evidence of cannabis having been smoked while at the property.

Mr Sabiston told the jury the story about the gang of “westerners” was, “a red herring” and he said the defendant’s whole account of being forcibly placed at the address to tend a crop, not knowing what the plants were, “just did not add up.”

Read next:

               Police found 117 cannabis plants being grown at house in Trimdon

               Durham Police uncover cannabis farm in Horden

               Cannabis grower placed in County Durham home to repay debt

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Tabitha Buck, for the defendant, said he was a man of good character in this country who did not know where he had been brought to and was not, “living in luxury”, while he claimed he was not part of any gang.

Following deliberations. the jury found the defendant guilty of cannabis production and Judge James Adkin sentenced him to 20 months’ imprisonment.

Upon release at the half-way stage of the sentence Van Thong faces likely deportation to Vietnam by the Home Office.