A MAN found with thousands of pounds worth of cannabis plants growing in his home planned to sell them for profit, a court was told.

Peter Chescoe was jailed for 15 months at Worcester Crown Court for what the judge labelled a “significant” operation.

Police searched the 35-year-old’s home after he was spotted out on the night of February 23 this year acting as though he was under the influence of drugs.

He put up a struggle, Worcester Crown Court was told, but officers managed to arrest him and found 1.38g of ketamine in his pocket.

Then, at his home in Belmont Road, Malvern, they found a bag containing 16.8g of cannabis, along with 265 cannabis plants – 65 of which were flowering and just two to three weeks from being ready to harvest.

Officers also found a number of text messages on his iPhone offering to sell some of his crop on, including one message to someone known only as ‘K Kam’ and two to someone called Nev. Chescoe pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possession of cannabis, possession of ketamine, production of cannabis and three charges of offering to supply cannabis.

Prosecutor Mary Wallace said the total haul of cannabis would have been worth between £4,880 and £13,000 on the street.

Chescoe was arrested for this offence, she said, and while he was on bail for it he burgled a house while drunk, stealing an iPad, a bike and a television.

He was given a suspended sentence in April.

Handing out the immediate custodial sentence, Judge Robert Juckes QC said Chescoe had been “very fortunate” that the court sentencing him for the burglary had not known about the pending drugs charges.

“It was quite a sophisticated set-up for the production of cannabis,” he said.

“You were in contact with friends of yours to whom you would have been selling it in due course.

“That is an offence which carries a custodial sentence.”

Defending, Mark Lister said Chescoe had “made the most” of his suspended sentence and had fought his alcohol and cannabis habits.

He said Chescoe’s father was “almost entirely” dependent on him for support, and said he would suffer if his son went to prison.

But Judge Juckes said he had given Chescoe all the credit he could in reducing the sentence to 15 months from what he said would have been his starting point of 30 months behind bars.