A MAN facing drugs farm charges said he helped to water cannabis plants to help a friend out, a court has heard.

Christopher Tame, 41, of Wallace Street, Shoebury, admitted producing cannabis after police officers raided a home in Westborough Road, Westcliff, and found 226 plants in the loft on September 15, 2016.

While Tame claims he only watered the plants, he appeared before Basildon Crown Court facing charges of abstracting electricity and concealing criminal cash.

Architect Roy Laidlaw, 50, of High Street, Great Wakering, rented the property and admitted producing cannabis and abstracting electricity.

He will be sentenced at a later date after this trial.

The prosecution claim that he helped steal electricity worth £1,926 to help reduce the costs of cultivating the cannabis.

The court heard that Tame hid £21,000 worth of cash from the criminal activity in the house of his ex-partner.

Presenting the case for the prosecution, Mark LR Mullins told the jury that Tame’s fingerprints were found on the bag containing the huge stash of cash, found at his ex-partner Jessica Pope’s house in Thorpe Bay.

Mr Mullins read text messages between Tame and Ms Pope, who have a child together, which suggested Ms Pope was “keeping something illegitimate” for him.

She was cleared of possessing criminal property in a trial last October.

Mr Tame, a father-of-three, took the stand in his own defence yesterday to say he knew nothing about the drug operation until his friend, Mr Laidlaw, asked for help.

He said: “I didn’t know anything about it until I went to meet him and he told me the situation. “He told me he had been threatened and owed people a lot of money and that he was going away on holiday to see his daughter in Slovenia so asked me to water the plants.

“I knew nothing about him agreeing to grow cannabis before that.”

When asked whether he ever took the product of the cannabis farm from the house to sell for profit, Mr Tame told the court this had never happened.

He added: “As a friend and someone that cared I offered to help him out.”

The trial continues.