A MAN who rented a small industrial unit and turned it into a cannabis farm has been jailed.

Police smelt the drug in a unit on South Hetton Industrial Estate, near Peterlee, County Durham, when they were called out after a nearby alarm went off.

Durham Crown Court was told that officers found the remains of a commercial cannabis cultivation operation.

Peter Schofield, prosecuting, said although the equipment was partly dismantled, with several items removed, 95 plants grown there had been harvested.

Inquiries revealed the unit was hired through a property company in March 2003.

A man called Andrew Smith made the initial rent payments.

Police visited an address given by Mr Smith, in Hartlepool but it was found to be the home of Andrew McLeod, who was smoking cannabis when officers called.

He initially denied involvement with the cannabis farm operation.

He was later picked out from an identity parade by the property company manager and the tenant of a neighbouring industrial unit.

Mr Schofield said McLeod's fingerprints were found next to a mains electricity box at the unit, which had been tampered with.

The court was told that he has several convictions for drugs possession.

McLeod, 25, of Skelton Street, Hartlepool, admitted producing a controlled drug at an earlier hearing.

Paul Cross, mitigating, said the unit had initially been used for the storage of fencing materials, when first rented.

But it became used as a cannabis farm, which was no longer in operation by the time police officers discovered it.

Mr Cross said McLeod played only a peripheral part in the operation, being paid for his role with ten grammes of cannabis, with a street value of about £1,000.

Mr Cross said McLeod had been a serious heroin abuser with a habit at one time amounting to £200-per-day, but he was attempting to withdraw from it and was on a course of methadone.

Jailing McLeod for six months, Judge Peter Armstrong said although he appeared to have played a lesser role, anyone involved in such an operation could expect a prison sentence.