Sheffield drug farmer 'planned to smoke two kilos of cannabis'

Officers raided Richard Swallow's Cross Hill home on January 25, last year, when they uncovered 19 mature plants.

Prosecutor Stephanie Hollis said the cannabis could have fetched between £8,000 and £20,000 depending on how it was sold.

"He initially said he was merely looking after them," she said. "He then changed his account and admitted they were his.

"He said he couldn't afford his habit and suggested he smoked 14 joints per day.

Ms Hollis said that even if he did smoke that much there would have been enough cannabis for 476 days.

"Clearly a proportion is for onward sale."

Sheffield Crown Court heard that Swallow received a suspended six month sentence in June 2013 for growing cannabis.

Andrew Swabey, mitigating, said Swallow, a "diligent and hard-working" supervisor in the building trade, entered an early guilty plea.

"At the time he was spending a large amount of money on cannabis and the idea was to grow the cannabis to reduce his costs," he said.

"It was more than he anticipated. It's highly likely that some of that would be sold to friends."

Swallow, 30, pleaded guilty to Class B drug production.

Recorder Amy Mannion hand him an eight month sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

A five month curfew, from 9pm to 5am, was also imposed.