POLICE called to a disturbance at a Southampton house discovered the occupier had been growing cannabis with a potential yield of at least £6,000, the city crown court heard.

Police officers found 17 plants in a bedroom and a further 18 juvenile plants kept in a kitchen cupboard, said prosecutor Stuart Ellacott.

Victor Voysey, who in 1996 had been jailed for 18 months in France for importing drugs, admitted producing cannabis.

Judge Derwin Hope accepted that Voysey – who was said to have committed 53 previous offences – had been pressured into growing the cannabis because of a drug debt.

He then followed the probation service recommendation and gave Voysey, of Cuckmere Lane, a ten-month suspended sentence coupled with an 18-month supervision order and a six-month drug rehabilitation order.