A Vietnamese teenager who kept watch over a three storey cannabis factory has admitted farming the drug.

Than Dinh Dang, 18, said he was smuggled into Britain illegally earlier this year with the promise of work in the catering industry.

But the job never appeared, he claimed, and instead a criminal gang told him to guard thousands of pounds worth of cannabis plants at a converted house in Cranbrook Road, Wimbledon.

He was found hiding in the building's loft when the house was raided by police on July 22, and pleaded guilty to cultivation of cannabis at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court today.

The three-storey property, created by knocking two houses into one building, was equipped with lights and growing equipment designed to maximise production of the drug.

Dang, of no fixed address, told the court he arrived in Britain illegally a couple of months ago and on July 17 had been taken to the factory and told he would be paid “good money” to watch over the growing cannabis.

Magistrates were told the 60 plants found in the raid would have a street value of around £7,000 when fully mature.

A police spokesman said: “If each room were to be used then this is the closure of a substantial factory.”

Sergeant Tony Oram, of Hillside safer neighbourhood team, said: "The residents of Hillside can be reassured that the supply and manufacture of drugs on our ward will not be tolerated."

Dang, who was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on a date yet to be decided, said he was keen to return to Vietnam as soon as possible.

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