'Lost' prisoner released in error re-jailed after £45,000 cannabis factory found at terraced Leeds home
A drugs farmer released from prison in error was re-arrested and jailed after he was caught tending to a cannabis factory at a terraced Leeds home for a second time.
Nam Nguyen was due to be sentenced in January, but when his case was called on, the Crown embarrassingly admitted they did not know where he was, and suspected he was released from prison by mistake.
Found in Reading in Berkshire, he was arrested and placed back into custody. He appeared in court this week from HMP Leeds where he admitted production of cannabis, and driving without a licence.
Prosecuting at Leeds Crown Court this week, Elizabeth Noble said officers had suspected a cannabis farm at the property on Burley Lodge Terrace, so issued a warrant to search the house.
They gained entry on February 26 last year and found 167 plants in the cellar and loft.
It had the usual set up of lights, transformers, fans and extractors.
One room was filled with fully-mature plants, the other containing smaller plants for a follow-on grow.
The estimated yield would have been around 4.57kg and each crop would be worth between £39,000 and £45,000, if sold on the streets. Wholesale would fetch around £14,000, Ms Noble said.
Nguyen, 25, was later arrested in a parked car outside an address on Somerdale Gardens in Leeds, where another cannabis grow was found, although he was not charged in relation to that set-up.
The court heard that Nguyen was jailed for 12 months in 2019 for producing cannabis.
Mitigating, Catherine Duffy said Nguyen accepted his role, but it was not his operation and had “no influence over anyone above him in the chain”.
She said he had incurred a large debt after being smuggled illegally into the UK several years ago and that he was being pressured to pay up. He said his family in Vietnam were being intimidated as a result.
She said he had been “in limbo” since last year and had spent time at a Home Office detention centre after being re-arrested.
She said he has expressed his remorse and regrets over his involvement.
Ms Duffy said it was now “inevitable” he will be deported after serving his sentence, although Judge Ray Singh pointed out that he should have been deported after his last conviction, but remained.
Judge Singh told Nguyen: “It’s a classic example of failures firstly by the Home Office who should have deported you after your last sentence, as that should have been automatic.
“Secondly, by the prison authorities who released you when they shouldn’t have done. But they are not matters that affect the ultimate sentence imposed upon you.
“You say you have learned your lesson and won’t do it again. I’m afraid you should have learned your lesson in 2019.”
He jailed him for 33 months, and gave him three penalty points for the driving matter.
He told him: “If the Home Office now decide to do their job properly, you will be released and deported at the half-way stage.”