A MAN who targeted Gorleston to set up a cannabis factory with a potential yield of �120,000, was yesterday jailed for six years.Dung Pham, 49, from London, bought the house in Beccles Road, for just over �169,000 in December last year and then turned the property into a cannabis factory, Norwich Crown Court heard.

A MAN who targeted Gorleston to set up a cannabis factory with a potential yield of �120,000, was yesterday jailed for six years.

Dung Pham, 49, from London, bought the house in Beccles Road, for just over �169,000 in December last year and then turned the property into a cannabis factory, Norwich Crown Court heard.

However his scheme went wrong when neighbours reported they thought there had been a burglary at the address and when police searched the property they found evidence that 500 cannabis plants had been growing there.

Expert evidence indicated there had been two crops growing with a potential yield of around �120,000.

Pham, claimed he had bought the house in case his son got married and had then let it out to a friend who had been the one behind growing the cannabis.

Pham, of Gildersone Street, London, had denied producing cannabis between November 2007 and August 14 last year but was convicted following a trial by a jury who took just over an hour to find him guilty.

Jailing him for six years, Judge Simon Barham, told him: “It is plain you are the organiser. You bought the premises with a specific intention to set up a cannabis factory away from London and you were actively involved in it. This matter is aggravated because you have a conviction for cultivating cannabis in May 2005.”

Afterwards the officer in the case Detective Constable Mike Flower said: “It is clear he targeted Norfolk in order to set up his drug enterprise away from the London area. The investigation has taken just over a year. It is clear from what has been said in court Pham was clearly the main organiser of this factory.”

He added that he was pleased with the outcome.