Albanian cannabis grower to be deported for second time after slipping back into Northamptonshire
A man found in a cannabis grow house in Irthlingborough was in the UK illegally after being deported just a year before.
Indrit Dema, 33, was jailed for 45 months back in July last year after he was arrested at a house in Lister Road, Wellingborough, where cannabis worth £75,000 was being grown.
After serving a portion of his sentence in custody he was deported back to Albania.
But within a year he was back, undetected, in Northamptonshire and growing cannabis in a house in Highfield Road, Irthlingborough.
On August 6 police were tipped off that the house may be being used for production of the Class-B drug. When they arrived they opened a side gate, and Dema ran out of the house.
Inside officers found 47 cannabis plants with an approximate sale value of between £3,000 and £6,000.
They also discovered that Dema had previously been banned from entering the United Kingdom.
Recorder Helen Wolstenholme, sitting at Northampton Crown Court, yesterday (Thursday, September 18) heard that Dema had claimed he had been under pressure and intimidation from others to return to the UK to help in the production of cannabis.
She said: “You left the UK in July 2024 but you were back here and committing other offences by the summer of 2025.
"I wasn’t provided with anything more specific than that in terms of your re-entry to the country.
"There was some pressure for you to return to repay a drug debt.”
He was given 16 months in prison but will be again be subject to automatic deportation to Albania because of the length of his prison term.