A “GARDENER” caught at the scene of one of the borough’s biggest cannabis farms has been jailed for 30 months.

And when Jain Wang, aged 26, is freed from custody, he will be deported to his native China.

Police officers found Wang alone in a derelict factory in Radcliffe town centre that was being used to harvest 1,200 plants.

At Bolton Crown Court on Friday, Judge Elliot Knopf said: “It is important to do this, both punish you and to put the message across to anyone involved in this field that they will be placed in custody and, where appropriate, deported.”

At an earlier hearing, Wang had told the court he was a gardener who had only been at the building — and in the country — for a couple of days.

He was found at Paragon House, in Milltown Street, which is a three-storey mill that has been empty for more than five years.

Officers became suspicious of Paragon House after neighbours noticed parts of the mill had been boarded up.

They used a police helicopter to capture a thermal image plan of the building.

The findings were so extraordinary, police were able to obtain a warrant through the courts to search the premises.

The court heard how a team of officers smashed their way into the barricaded property in a raid at 8.25am on November 24 last year.

They found hundreds of plants in two ground-floor rooms and hundreds more in two first-floor rooms. All rooms were exposed to high-powered lighting.

Prosecution counsel Lisa Bakker said: “Overall, 1,200 plants were recovered by police who searched the property.

“That amounted to 48kg of cannabis which, if sold as separate units, would be worth £205,000.”

The court heard that, when the officers searched the second floor they found Wang asleep face down in a small room.

Next to him was a bag belonging to Wang. It contained instructions in both Mandarin and English on how to use apparatus to grow cannabis efficiently.

Wang was arrested and charged. He pleaded guilty to one charge of being concerned in the production of a controlled drug, namely cannabis.

Judge Elliot Knopf added: “This was a sophisticated cultivation arrangement.

“These are circumstances that, unhappily, are not uncommon. The number of cannabis farms in this area and across the country has increased considerably in recent times and, not infrequently, people such as you are found within these places.

“They have arrived in this country, often illegally and are recruited by those who are able to explore people in this way.

“Your presence in this country is of detriment to the UK and its public.”

At the time of the raid, police officers described the find as one of the largest in Bury for many years.