A MAN looking after more than 400 cannabis plants was snared after a break-in at the house where they were being grown.
Sam Hoang, 46, was the "gardener" at the property in Rossington Road, Sneinton, Nottingham Crown Court heard yesterday.
A neighbour called police when she heard noises in the early hours of September 28.
She looked outside and saw two youths who she believed were breaking into the house.
When police officers arrived they saw Hoang and another man walking away from the house.
After giving chase they found Hoang hiding in a nearby garden but his companion got away.
When they went back to the house the officers found two youths there.
The door had been forced off its hinges, Jim Metcalf, prosecuting said.
Hoang was arrested after officers found 412 cannabis plants at various stages of maturity and cannabis growing materials, .
Police drugs experts believed the plants could have weighed up to 20kg once they all matured – meaning they could have sold for up to £200,000.
Mr Metcalf said: "Hoang was a gardener rather than having main involvement."
Digby Johnson, mitigating, said Hoang, of no fixed address, had left his homeland Vietnam in 2009 and spent time in Russia working in the construction industry.
He later moved to the Czech Republic and France before arriving in England about two years ago.
He struggled to find work in London and was advised to move to Nottingham.
When he arrived he was pressured into looking after the cannabis, Mr Johnson said.
"His role seems to have been a limited one," added Mr Johnson.
The court heard the other man seen with Hoang has not been found.
One of the youths in the house was cautioned while no action was taken against the other.
Hoang, who needed an interpreter in court as he speaks little English, pleaded guilty to the producing cannabis between July 1 and September 28.
Judge Michael Stokes, QC, jailed Hoang for 12 months.
After serving half his sentence he will be deported back to Vietnam.
Sentencing him, Judge Stokes said: "This was a commercial grow on a substantial scale.
"You were here illegally and therefore subject to pressures and your role was not a significant one, essential though it was."