A BACUP pensioner who has never broken the law before was running a potential £16,000 cannabis farm, a court heard.

Anthony Nixon told police who raided the property someone else had set the operation up but, Burnley Crown Court was told, he was going it alone when they turned up. He said the drugs were primarily for himself, although he was hoping to sell some, but never got round to it. Nixon, who is 69, had also been abstracting electricity for the 40 young, but healthy plants and had taken power worth more than £2,000.

The defendant, of Todmorden Road, admitted producing cannabis, between December last year and January and abstracting electricity. He was given 12 months in prison, suspended for two years and must pay a £100 statutory surcharge.

The amount of electricity abstracted was £2,400. Philip Holden, for Nixon, said he had paid back £1,500 to the electricity company.