The son of millionaire magician Paul Daniels was today sentenced for creating a cannabis farm at his home.

Paul Newton Daniels, 41, was given a 12 months community rehabilitation order after confessing to growing 89 cannabis plants in the cellar and bedroom of his home in Northgate, Hartlepool.

He grew the plants for medical reasons to help a respiratory problem.

The unemployed former financial adviser said outside the court today that he was forced into growing the plant because he could not afford to buy cannabis from dealers.

His health had deteriorated and doctors told him that it could be the start of angina.

But he said he is not prepared to go to his father for money for treatment.

The pair fell out when Daniels was staying at his father's mansion in Berkshire, shortly after he had been released from prison for obtaining property by deception.

He returned home late from a night out when an argument broke out.

Daniels said: "It was just one of those daft arguments that families have. We have had them in the past and made up.

"I came home late one night and one thing led to another."

Asked whether he would like to resolve the row, he said: "In some ways yes, other ways I have got my own life and he can be a bit overbearing so it is his way or no way sometimes."

He denied that his famous father's split from his mother Jackie had been a factor in the breakdown of their relationship.

"I don't think that he let us down that way. It was his job, he had to make a living. They split and he wasn't going to be around that often."

Daniels said he believed there was a place in society for cannabis to be used for medical purposes. He said: "It did help me, which is why I started using it.

"If it helps me it must help some people - there's been other cases where it has worked."

Hartlepool magistrates today ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the cannabis plants and cultivating equipment found at Daniels's home when police raided his property in the early hours of June 29.

Prosecutor Amanda Bryan told the court that 25 mature plants were found in a cellar rigged up with special lighting, heating and irrigation equipment.

A further 64 plants were discovered in an upstairs bedroom.

Barry Gray, defending, told the court that Daniels's cannabis farm was "amateurish", established using information the defendant had downloaded from the Internet.

Mr Gray said his client's motive for growing the plants was to help alleviate his medical condition.

"He is a 41-year-old man, he lives quietly in Hartlepool. He has health problems and the use of cannabis is something that he has only resorted to in the very recent part of his life.

"His reasons for doing so was entirely to alleviate the symptoms which have been occurring in the recent past and have given him considerable discomfort and pain."

Daniels was also ordered to pay £60 court costs.