FACTORY owner Martin Timothy has begun a 15-month jail term after he switched trades from car parts to cannabis plants. When police raided his unit at Honeysome Road Industrial Estate, Chatteris, in June they found 799 flowering plants with a wholesale va

FACTORY owner Martin Timothy has begun a 15-month jail term after he switched trades from car parts to cannabis plants.

When police raided his unit at Honeysome Road Industrial Estate, Chatteris, in June they found 799 flowering plants with a wholesale value of almost £90,000.

Five first-floor rooms were being used for the production of cannabis, including an area dubbed the "mother" room which housed 22 large plants and more than 350 seedlings.

Cambridge Crown Court heard that Timothy, 47, of Fenton Way, Chatteris, had switched to crime after his metal fabrication and garage business failed.

The court was told Timothy's illegal drugs operation was sophisticated and "potentially successful". The 800 flowering plants discovered by police would have produced 24 kilos.

Also found were 373 hollow-point bullets in the office safe, which was ammunition for a gun Timothy relinquished to the police when the firearms certificate for his legally-held shotgun expired.

Timothy admitted the cannabis production and illegal possession of the ammunition. In mitigation, Azza Brown said Timothy set up the cannabis operation when his business went downhill and he faced money problems.

He was jailed for 15 months for the drug charge, with 15 months concurrent for the ammunition charge.

- Insp Sissons said police were always in need of information and people should contact Crimestoppers, telephone or e-mail Cambridgeshire police, or put a letter through the letterbox of their nearest police station.