Man was 'told he would be killed' unless he looked after Corby cannabis factory

A man who arrived in the UK by a dinghy was told he would be killed unless he looked after a Corby cannabis factory.

Sevedin Cara paid a trafficker £4,000 to make the treacherous journey across the Channel from France.

The 32-year-old Albanian was later approached in a cafe and offered a job – before being taken to a four-bed detached house in Stanier Road and told he would have to help grow drugs.

But he was caught when police raided the smart house in the Lloyds area last year. On Thursday (January 12) he was jailed after pleading guilty to producing cannabis.

Northampton Crown Court heard Cara, of no fixed address, had been taken to a detention centre when he arrived in the UK and was given papers to travel to Manchester.

From there he took a train to London to meet family and told police he was sitting in a cafe when a man – who he described as of African descent – offered him work.

Prosecutor Jonathan Stone said he was then taken to Corby and was threatened that he would be killed if he didn’t look after the cannabis plants being grown there.

Cara said the man visited him every couple of weeks to give him food and said a man who he communicated with, who he only named as ‘A’, controlled CCTV of the house.

Mr Stone said: "He thought he was being watched and did not want to escape through fear of what may happen to him."

Police raided the property at about 9.30am on November 23 and noticed Cara trying to get out of a window. A Taser was drawn and he was detained, with a phone and cash seized. The phone had messages setting out details on what to do with the cannabis.

In total 86 mature plants and 53 baby plants – potentially worth thousands of pounds – were found spread across the house.

Mr Stone said: "This is a commercial set-up."

Mitigating, Liam Muir said that that there was a degree of vulnerability and that Cara was remorseful.

He said: "He knows the only possible sentence is one of immediate custody."

Recorder William Webb jailed Cara for a total of 30 weeks.