A Vietnamese man who was in charge of a cannabis farm at a privately rented property has been jailed for 15 months.

And Thieu Nguyen faces deportation back to Asia when his sentence ends as he entered the country illegally a few weeks before his arrest.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told Swindon crown court police raided the house in Vicarage Avenue, Cheney Manor, on Monday August 13 with a warrant under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

When officers entered the three bedroom house they found the upstairs had been completely converted for growing drugs.

Specialist lighting, heating, ventilation and watering systems were fitted and powered through a bank of sockets which bypassed the electricity meter.

Silver ducts had been set up which took moisture and the acrid smell of the growing drugs into the loft space and out of the building.

Miss Marlow said a total of 181 mature cannabis plants were found which could have had a value of between £20,000 and £30,000.

Nguyen was the only person found in the house, which had been rented from a private landlord by a woman, and he was arrested.

He told police that he was responsible for looking after the crop but he believed they were Chinese medicinal herbs and not drugs.

He said he had entered the country illegally and had been taken to the house to look after the plants, which he was told were worth £4,000 and he would get a quarter of the money.

Nguyen, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to cultivating a plant of the genus cannabis between Sunday June 24 and Monday August 13 this year.

Andrew Hobson, defending, said his client played no part in the setting up of the factory and was simply the waterer' in the operation.

Nguyen, he said, had left his wife and two children to try and find work in the west a number of years ago and found his way to Hungary.

He said he worked there for a number of years before being trafficked to the United Kingdom.

"He drunk in Hungary one night, he is not used to drinking," Mr Hobson told the court.

"He had half a bottle of wine and woke to find himself in the back of a lorry in another country which turned out to be the United Kingdom."

After his arrival he said Nguyen met up with some other Vietnamese and was offered the chance to earn some money looking after the cannabis farm.

Jailing him for 15 months Recorder Paul Garlick QC added "The UK Immigration Service are aware of your presence in court today.

"The necessary forms have not been served on you or the court for me to make a recommendation but I may say had they been I would have made the recommendation.

"No doubt the UK Immigration Service will set in turn the necessary steps to lead to your deportation."

The discovery came two weeks before another rented property on Greenlands Road, Upper Stratton, was found converted into a cannabis factory.

Nam Van Tran, 32, had only been in the country for ten days when police raided the property which contained 234 plants worth about £75,000. He was jailed for nine months after admitting being concerned in the supply of drugs.

Last year a number of houses which had been converted for the production of the drug were found across the town leading to a number of Vietnamese nationals being jailed.