A man caught in an Abingdon house ‘filled to the brim’ with cannabis plants welcomed the opportunity to be deported to Albania, a court heard.
Shklqim Marku, 33, left his homeland at the age of 15, then worked his way across Europe before ending up in the UK six years ago. He did not have permission to work in this country.
Gordana Austin, mitigating, told Oxford Crown Court on Friday (July 7) that her cannabis-farming client ‘simply wants to be deported back to Albania’.
Judge Michael Gledhill KC told the defendant, who he jailed for eight months: “I wish you well when you get back to Albania.” Through an interpreter, Marku replied: “Thank you very much.”
The drugs case came as Thames Valley Police said they had carried out 31 raids in June targeting organised gangs growing cannabis across the region. Officers seized cannabis worth an estimated £4.2m and made 35 arrests.
Shklqim Marku was found in this industrial scale cannabis farm in Abingdon Picture: TVP (Image: Thames Valley Police)
On Friday, prosecutor David Dainty told the crown court that police officers saw the defendant behind the wheel of a Fiat 500 bubble-style car when he pulled up outside a property in Challenor Close, Abingdon, on May 10.
“They had concerns already the address was being used as a cannabis factory and so they carried out a PNC [Police National Computer] check on the vehicle,” he said.
The Fiat was registered to an address in Bedfordshire, ‘which gave the police further cause for concern’.
At 2pm, they smashed through the doors of the property. Marku jumped through a window then tried, unsuccessfully, to hide in a bush in order to evade the police officers’ clutches.
Mr Dainty said the property was ‘filled to the brim with mature cannabis plants’. Photographs taken by the police showed that ‘almost every available space within the property was dedicated to the growing of plants’. In total, there were around 300 plants growing under lights and industrial fans.
Marku, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to production of a class B drug and claimed in a basis of plea that he had been visiting the property for 15 days before his arrest so he could water the plants. He also admitted driving the Fiat 500 without a valid licence or insurance.
READ MORE: Drug raids in June saw £4.2m-worth of cannabis seized
Mitigating, Ms Austin said of her client: “He simply wants to apologise to the court for getting involved in illegal activities.”
Judge Gledhill told the defendant: “I’m not going to lecture you about the illegal watering of cannabis plants that you were involved in.
“You are well aware that was illegal. You became involved because you are an illegal immigrant and couldn’t work legally and you had to earn money in order to survive.
“You want to go back to Albania as soon as possible and I wish you well when you go back to Albania.
“I have to mark the offence. Cannabis is not only illegal but it causes all sorts of problems, from mental health issues to people committing offences in order to purchase it.”
He jailed him for eight months and fined him £402 and banned him for six months for the driving matters.
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