A MAN who “self-medicated” with £50 worth of cannabis a week has escaped jail after more than £9,000 of the Class B plants were found in his garage.

At Oxford Crown Court, Edwin McPartland, 50, pleaded guilty to allowing his premises to be used for the cultivation of cannabis.

Police searched his address at The Beeches, in Chipping Norton, on April 29 and found almost 200 plants.

McPartland told the court he suffered chronic fatigue, arthritis and systemic lupus, and used £50 of cannabis a week as “a form of self-medication”.

His barrister said McPartland naively allowed other men, whom he was scared of, to run the operation in his garage in return for some cannabis for personal use.

She said: “He was not somebody who was in any way, shape or form the mastermind of this operation.”

Judge Patrick Eccles said: “I accept it was other people who had put a deal of pressure on you.”

McPartland was given a nine-month jail term, suspended for a year, a three-month night-time curfew and ordered to pay costs of £1,000.