The managing director of a stone company has been jailed for two years, following the discovery of a commercial cannabis grow underneath his business premises.

Gary Hodgkinson appeared in Bradford Crown Court yesterday. The court heard that Hodgkinson allowed others to set up the growing operation at his premises in Keighley, when his business was suffering financially as a result of the recession.

The growth was concealed behind a large safe in Hodgkinson’s store in a converted World War Two air raid shelter.

Police officers discovered 48 plants being grown in two rooms, with overhead lighting, floor fans and an air filtration system.

Almost four kilograms of harvested and packed cannabis was discovered in one room, estimated to have a street value of £36,000. The prosecution say that the growing plants could have yielded a further £45,000 worth of the drug.

Image Attirbution: Lode Van de Velde [Public domain]