A TEENAGER is behind bars for cultivating hundreds of cannabis plants in an Oxford suburb.

Vietnamese national Tuan Nguyen was the gardener at the drug factory in Headley Way, Headington, when it was raided by police in May.

The 19-year-old, who came to Britain illegally on a lorry, admitted being concerned in the production of a Class B drug and was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court.

Nigel Ogborne, prosecuting, said: “Police executed a search warrant in Headley Way at 11.40am on May 10.

“The defendant was on the settee while officers searched the property and recovered 143 mature plants growing under lights.

“Two of the three bedrooms were dominated by cannabis and there were also some 140 seedlings growing.

“The electricity was being diverted and this was a classic cannabis factory in a house.

“The prosecution case is he is no more than the classic gardener.”

Clare Fraser, defending, said her client was “quite a vulnerable young man who finds himself in a foreign country”.

She added: “He has been in the UK for approximately seven months.

“He came on a lorry having travelled through other countries and spent a time working in the Czech Republic and in France.

“He left Vietnam approximately 12 months ago. He stated he came to the UK essentially for a better life.

His parents passed away approximately four years ago and he had been living with his grandma.”

Explaining how Nguyen came to Oxford, Miss Fraser added: “He was at an open-air market in London when he was approached by an Asian and a Western male.

“They asked him if he would go with them to a property where he would look after plants for herbal medication.

“In return they said they would clothe him, feed him, and pay him £100 a fortnight.

“He became aware after approximately two months that the plants were cannabis and were illegal. But he had nowhere else to go and didn’t know anybody in the UK, coupled by being in fear of what they might do if he didn’t stay at the property.”

Judge Anthony King gave Nguyen two years and three months’ youth detention on Friday and said he would be deported on completing his sentence.