POLICE found a £14,000 cannabis farm at a terrace house in Bacup after attending to investigate a burglary, a court was told.

Officers discovered 63 cannabis plants with growing equipment at the property in Regent Street, which could have produced 2.52 kgs of drugs.

Prolific criminal Frank Edge, 52, later went into the police station and owned up, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Edge claimed the drugs were mostly for his own use - but a judge said he had been running a business and jailed him for a year.

Judge Beverley Lunt said the defendant, a "prolific offender," was doing it for profit and thought in about eight weeks he could make £2,000, but it appeared he had underestimated it.

She continued: "I mustn't just punish you, I have got to deter other people from thinking this is a good business plan.

"The only way to do that is to impose an immediate custodial sentence."

The defendant, now of Rothesay Terrace, Turfhill, Rochdale, admitted producing cannabis between last October and November.

Sarah Statham, prosecuting, told the court police were told a burglary had taken place at Regent Street.

They attended and in the back yard saw two cannabis plants and a smashed window.

Officers went in the property and in a bedroom found a small cannabis farm.

Miss Statham said the defendant went into the police station voluntarily, with the person in whose name the tenancy had been taken out.

He said he had been given 25 to 30 plants to look after for three and a half weeks, had been growing them and wanted to sort the matter out.

Edge claimed he had been asked to carry out some work on the house and in return he was allowed to stay there overnight.

He told officers a man had offered him some cannabis plants and he had paid £100 for them and all the equipment.

He accepted sole responsibility.

Richard Dawson, representing Edge, said he had abused cannabis and amphetamine almost throughout his adult life.

That took over his earlier addiction to drink.

He had been in and out of work to fund his habit.

Mr Dawson: “Perhaps the best mitigation is the fact he has held his hand up at the first opportunity to that wrong doing."