A CANNABIS grower hacked into an electricity supply to help harvest his crop without having to pay for the energy needed for the money-making scheme.

Graham Smith used a £300 housing loan to set up the factory, in the front bedroom of a terraced property in Darlington, with seeds and watering equipment.

Teesside Crown Court heard that the unemployed 39-year-old needed to raise money by selling the drugs to clear a £20,000 debt he had with a loan shark.

Last November, police raided the house, in Wilson Street, and found 67 plants in various stages of growth in the bedroom, said Lesley Kirkup, prosecuting.

The mains supply had been dangerously tampered with, Ms Kirkup told Judge Peter Bowers, and an electrician who examined it declared it was a safety hazard.

Despite Smith's breaking the law, his landlord was still prepared to let him stay and vowed to make random visits to ensure the house was not being mistreated.

Christopher Morrison, mitigating, said: "It is now under closer scrutiny than the police would ever have the resources to undertake, and there will be no repetition."

Mr Morrison urged Judge Bowers to spare Smith from prison, and said he had made excellent progress in his battle to beat a long-standing heroin addiction.

"Drug abuse has been a blighting feature of his existence since he left school, but gladly he has recently stabilised, " he told the court.

"He realises that this activity is socially divisive and it is wrong. He realises the parlous position he is in and that Your Honour should impose a custodial sentence.

"He would struggle in custody and much of what he has sought to build and has built in the past six months would be completely ruined."

The court heard that Smith was the subject of a suspended prison sentence imposed for growing cannabis at a different house when he was arrested in November.

He pleaded guilty to producing Class B drugs, abstracting electricity and breaching the suspended sentence, passed in January last year.

Judge Bowers jailed him for 18 months after telling him: "You were given a chance last year. I am sorry, but the court has to keep its word."

The court heard how Smith borrowed £2,000 from the illegal money-lender, but high interest rates rocketed the figure up to £20,000.

Mr Morrison said the loan shark has since claimed he will leave Smith alone, but added: "To what degree he can be confident about that, no one will know. "