A LANDSCAPE gardener ran a potential £10,000 cannabis farm at a house in Oswaldtwistle.

Karen Manson, 46, had a record for supplying the drug, but had not been acting alone and somebody else must have set up the ‘sophisticated’ growing systemy, Burnley Crown Court heard. The electricity meter had been by-passed at the house, where 44 cannabis plants were found in two bedrooms.

There was high-powered lighting, a ventilation system, and two plants looked like they had been harvested. Experts estimated the 26 plants found in the front bedroom could have produced just over a kilo of cannabis, worth £10,000 on the streets.

Manson, of Chestnut Grove, Fern Gore, Accrington, had admitted producing the drug, between January and April this year. She was given 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, with two years’ supervision. David Macro, prosecuting, said the house, in Havelock Street, had not been lived in since 2008.

Julian Goode, for Manson, said she worked as a landscape gardener and part-time delivery driver. She had convictions for drugs, but they were some time ago.