A cannabis farm “adviser” and “odd job man” who helped gangsters set up lucrative drugs factories after coming to the UK illegally has been spared prison.
Anh Nguyen was recruited by Darren Appleby and others for his knowledge in installing cannabis farms which would net the criminals thousands of pounds.
Appleby – currently serving a 24 year sentence for firearms offences – and two other men, Michael Flemming and Dylan Hepple, were jailed earlier this year for their part in the lucrative cannabis conspiracy.
Now Nguyen, who came to the UK as an illegal immigrant eleven years ago and is now an asylum seeker, has been spared prison for being concerned in the supply of cannabis.
Police went to Faraday Grove, Gateshead, in June 2018, where Nguyen was found with his wife and child.
They found more than £12,000 cash in various locations and also discovered items connected with growing cannabis, including fertiliser and feeding products. There was also a bag of dried cannabis leaf.
Sentencing Nguyen at Newcastle Crown Court, Judge Robert Adams said: “Your involvement is set against the background of sightings by the police of you in the company of Appleby, Flemming and Hepple.
“On a series of days at a series of locations, there were various sightings indicating your close involvement with those three.
“You gave advice,…