He tried to escape from a first floor window as police discovered the truth

A ‘gardener’ tried to escape from a first floor window as police stormed a property which had been transformed into a cannabis farm.

Krisjan Nikolli, 26, was offered £6,000 to look after the grow, which had been set up in a semi-detached house in Chorlton. But Manchester Crown Court heard that police became aware of it and raided the property.

As they conducted a search, Nikolli, an illegal immigrant who had previously been smuggled into the country, tried to escape from a first-floor window. He has now been jailed for his part in the scheme and warned that he faces deportation.

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Prosecuting, Amy Weir said that police officers executed a warrant at a house on Egerton Road South in Chorlton on July 30.. They discovered that a cannabis farm had been set up in two of the rooms.

One contained 27 plants, and the other had 36, with associated lamps and transformers. Two mobile phones and £2,000 in cash was seized from an upstairs room.

“The defendant tried to escape through a top floor window of the house but was detained,” Ms Weir said. Nikolli pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis, but he said he hadn’t set up the farm and was acting as a ‘gardener’ to tend to the cannabis plants.

He had voluntarily agreed to become involved and hoped to financially benefit to pay off debts, Nikolli said. His barrister Verity Quaite said that Nikolli was in debt to the traffickers who had helped him enter the UK illegally. His actions revealed his ‘desperation for money’, she said.

“There was a degree of pressure on him to find a way to make money,” she added. Ms Quaite said Nikolli was naive and had no influence on the more sophisticated criminals behind the grow.

Sentencing, Recorder Alexandra Simmons told the defendant: “You are 26-years-old, you have no previous convictions. You are, however, an illegal immigrant having been smuggled into this country from Albania.

“It seems you were recruited into growing cannabis, you say in return for a payment of £6,000. Your role was significant, but I accept that you were not responsible for the setting up of the grow, and other people were higher up the chain than yourself.”

Nikolli was sentenced to 20 months in prison. He was told he would serve half before being released on licence. “I anticipate that the Home Office will consider you for deportation at that time,” the judge told him.