A BUILDER hit by the recession who decided to earn extra cash by running a cannabis farm at a house in Birmingham has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Michael Hanlon, 31, had previously admitted charges of cultivating cannabis and abstracting electricity. The court heard he could have made up to £58,000 from the operation.

Ailsa Davis, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said Hanlon had rented a property in Ilford Road, Erdington, and that police had raided it because of the strong smell of cannabis coming from it.

Officers discovered that two of the bedrooms had been devoted to growing cannabis and that there were 177 plants.

Miss Davis said dried cannabis weighing just under two kilogrammes was discovered in another bedroom.

She said that the electricity supply had also been tampered with.

Matthew Barnes, defending, said Hanlon, who had building qualifications, had made a good living but he had been radically affected by the recession.

Judge Morris said that cannabis was a drug which caused enormous amounts of harm and lead to people taking harder drugs.

“Affected by the recession you decided to try your hand at cannabis cultivation to make money.It was not the largest of cannabis factories but it was a cannabis factory,” added Judge Morris.

He said that Morris could have made a profit of between £46,000 and £58,000.