A 34-YEAR-OLD man learned how to grow cannabis through playing a game called Pot Farm on Facebook.

Blackburn magistrates heard Mark Anthony Barnes was so successful at transferring virtual reality cultivation into the real thing that his first crop had a street value of nearly £7,000.

And Andrew Church-Taylor, defending, said no one had been more surprised than Barnes to discover that he had ‘green fingers’.

“There was so much he had actually destroyed some of the crop,” said Mr Church-Taylor.

“There was no evidence of supplying or commercial cultivation other than the quantity he had grown.”

Barnes, 34, of Johnston Street, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to producing cannabis.

He was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison suspended for 12 months, made subject to a 7pm to 7am curfew for 16 weeks and ordered to pay £85 costs.

Mr Church-Taylor said Barnes was a full-time carer for his wife and rarely went out of the house.

He spent a lot of time on his computer and discovered Pot Farm on Facebook.

“When the police discovered his operation they also found uprooted and destroyed cannabis plants,” said Mr Church-Taylor.

“What was left was for his own personal use and was never intended to be sold.”