AN ILLEGAL immigrant helped to cultivate £22,000 worth of cannabis to pay back the smugglers who got him into the country in the back of a lorry.

Ymeer Zyiali was arrested when officers found a cannabis farm inside a home on John Street, Church, in November while responding to reports of a fight.

Every room bar one inside the property had been configurated for the production of cannabis, with 55 plants with a total street value of £22,000 found inside the house. Zyiali was found in the one remaining room, which had been set aside as living quarters.

Preston Crown Court heard how the 26-year-old found himself £14,000 in debt after he was smuggled into the country from Albania in a lorry.

When he first arrived in the country he had secured ‘crime-free’ employment, his barrister David Farley said.

He added: “He lost that job and was without any form of income when he was offered the job that he finds himself before the court for doing.

“He is frank. He knew it was not legal, but he was desperate, so he took the job. He had not been there very long before the police arrived.

“He was a cleaner and a waterer of the plants for a subsistence wage and again to pay off his debt.”

It was heard how Zylali 'had an awareness and understanding' of the scale of the operation but held a lower role in the hierarchy due to him having no influence over those above him in the chain.

Jailing him for a total of 20 months, Judge Heather Lloyd said: “You came to this country illegally and you began to work in the black economy to pay your cousin for the transport. You say that was £14,000. I don’t know if you have a passport but if you did it would have been cheaper to catch a flight.

“When your job in construction fell through you were offered this employment in Church which you took knowing it was illegal and knowing the consequences should you be caught.

“It has been said on your behalf that you were a cleaner and you watered the plants and you told the police that you planted them also.

“The sentencing guidelines apply and a custodial sentence is inevitable. This is category two harm due to the quantity of drugs and the drugs that were seized were for that single occasion.

“The whole house had been taken over the production of drugs and you had been there for three months.

“Although your role was limited it was a trusted role for three months which is not an insignificant period. I take into account that you have no previous convictions in this country."