POLICE who raided the home of a woman found cannabis growing on the patio and paraphernalia for mass production of the illicit drug, as well as seeds and leaf remains in the loft, a court heard.

Dominique Young told drugs squad officers she had bought growing compound, powerful lamps and other electrical equipment together with plant pots and trays at a car boot sale, but had not touched it since, prosecutor Michael Hammond told Harrogate magistrates.

She said she put the equipment away because she felt that, one day, there would be a relaxation in the law and it would become legal to grow cannabis.

Young, 29, a mother, pleaded guilty to production of cannabis and possession of it, but her solicitor Geoffrey Rogers said the admission to growing concerned only five plants, which she had reared for eight weeks on the patio of her home in Dalby Avenue, Harrogate.

Mr Rogers said that in spite of what Young had told police, she maintained she had not entered the loft since she moved into the house.

She said: "She says she told police what she did because she wanted to get out of the police station as quickly as possible. She is a single mother and wanted to get home to her children."

Presiding magistrate Gillian Horrox declined to pass sentence until witnesses had been called by both sides, and adjourned the hearing until September 26.