A “co-conspirator” in an operation to grow cannabis in the basement of his home has been jailed for two years.

Builder Simon Beardsley, aged 46, allowed another man to set up two growing areas in the cellar of his home in Lower Chase Road, Malvern, and helped by watering the plants.

He told Worcester Crown Court he had no interest in cannabis himself but had been taking amphetamines for more than 20 years to combat chronic fatigue.

He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to cultivating 74 plants between June and December last year and to supplying cannabis, possession of amphetamines and abstracting electricity.

His plea was based on the involvement of another man, Chris Pitt, who has not been found. Peter Grice, prosecuting, told a hearing his existence was not accepted.

However, Recorder Martin Jackson said he believed the other man did exist. He also said he believed Beardsley was more than just a “gardener” and had been a co-conspirator in growing the plants for profit.

Beardsley told the court he had taken in the other man, accountant Mr Pitt, as a paying lodger in September 2009, and they had discussed a plan to grow the cannabis.

He allowed him to set up the hydroponic growing system in the basement, which he had been using as an office, in return for £400 a week because he could not rent out any other rooms in case the plants were discovered. He said he was only paid a fraction of this, totalling between £3,000 and £4,000.

He moved out of his own home to live with a woman in Bastonford, near Malvern, leaving Mr Pitt in the house.

Twelve months later, Mr Pitt left and Beardsley moved back in. Police found the plants in the basement on December 24 and he was arrested.

Beardsley also said he had supplied one of the cannabis plants to pay off a debt but had not sold any others. He admitted he had owned the black box – a device used to run an electricity meter backwards – for many years and this had been used to abstract the electricity.

Jason Taylor, defending, said Beardsley had been through difficult times. He had been evicted from his home because he was behind on his mortgage and had other debts which could lead to him going bankrupt. Mr Taylor said: “He has lost everything.”

Beardsley was given 18 months for cultivating the cannabis and six months for abstracting electricity. He was also given six months to run concurrently for supplying the cannabis and given no separate penalty for possession of amphetamines.