Drug farmer pretended to be teenager in hope of getting shorter jail sentence

A Vietnamese national who was caught tending a cannabis farm then pretended to be a teen in a bid to get a more lenient sentence has been jailed.

Hoang Hoang was snared after a suspicious neighbour alerted the police who attended and found the defendant inside the three-bed property in the Sunderland area.

The 26-year-old also lied to the authorities about his age when he told officers he was 17 in an attempt to be treated more leniently.

Prosecutor Neil Jones told Newcastle Crown Court: "The matter arises out of the 9th of April 2023 when police visited the house he was occupying.

"That house was in Houghton-le-Spring. It was a three-bed detached house.

"A neighbour had notified the police that the male who lived there had been away for a couple of weeks.

"There was water leaking from the rear of the property and fungus growing in on the side."

The court heard officers gained entry to the house where they saw Hoang coming down the stairs towards them.

However, it immediately became clear he spoke no English.

Mr Jones said he appeared to be texting on his mobile phone while trying to exit the property via the rear.

He added: "Police entered the premises and went upstairs where they discovered a cannabis farm.

"There was a ventilation pipe coming out of one of the bedrooms and a large number of mature plants found."

Around 200 mature cannabis plants were found across the bedrooms and the loft conversion.

When questioned by police, Hoang said he had been "beaten by two westerners" before being taken to the property where he was asked to do "this and that."

He told them he was being paid £500 a month to carry out the work.

Hoang, of no fixed abode, who appeared via custody at Durham Prison, pleaded guilty to producing cannabis and perverting the course of justice after providing the false date of birth.

However, Judge Julie Clemitson accepted that someone higher above the defendant in the chain would have instructed him to do that if he was caught.

Jamie Adams, defending, said Hoang had gotten into debt while in Vietnam and had effectively been trafficked into the UK.

Mr Adams added that his client was "effectively powerless" to have been able to do anything about the exploitation.

The court also heard he lost both parents in a flooding disaster in 2020.

Judge Julie Clemitson sentenced Hoang to eight months behind bars, but accepted he would be released soon due to the time spent on remand.

He will then spend the next year on post-licence supervision.