A seventy-year-old man has been jailed for two years after he allowed a cannabis factory to be run on his premises.

David Hawkes, of Spar Lane, Purleigh, was caught with three other men at the address along with 370 cannabis plants with a potential value of £194,000.

Police raided the dogs kennels on his property at 10am April 30 and found Mr Hawkes and two others wearing disposable paper suits and latex gloves.

Ten mother plants, 240 mature plants, 120 cuttings and paraphernalia including lights and extractor fans were seized.

If the group had not been caught, they would have produced 10.8 kg of potent skunk cannabis.

Hawkes admitted a charge of producing the class B drug at Chelmsford Crown Court on Wednesday where he appeared with co-defendants Daniel Morris, 22, of Christian Street, London, David Smith, 46, of Stepney Way, London, and Matthew Wheeler, 32, of Bow Road London.

Smith was jailed for 12 months and Wheeler and Morris were both handed ten month sentences for their roles as "gardeners".

Hawkes, who suffers from an arthritic hip, back problems and detached retina, said he was working under the instructions of others who he refused to name.

He accepted responsibility for some maintenance of the plants but said he had no knowledge of the collection or distribution processes.

In his sentencing speech, Judge David Turner QC said to Hawkes: "You permitted people to use your premises in this way for six months or more - it should have been blindingly obvious what was happening.

"You say you were threatened with consequences if you didn’t allow this to continue but you made the free decision to continue.

"It is sad a man has got to your time of life before descending to bad judgement of this order."