Heddington drug user supplied cannabis (From This Is Wiltshire)

A man who grew thousands of pounds worth of cannabis in a cottage has admitted being involved in its supply.

Thomas Murray, 38, was due to go on trial accused of offering to supply a class-B drug but admitted being concerned in supply before a jury could be sworn in. At an earlier hearing, he pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis at the rented property in Heddington, near Calne.

Police raided the cottage in May last year where they found drugs being grown, as well as cultivation equipment such as tents.

Plants were found in an outhouse as well as in the second bedroom of the property he shared with his girlfriend.

Another of the rooms was thought to have been converted into a room for drying the drugs.

When officers searched his mobile phone, they found messages which indicated he had been supplying the drug.

Murray, now living in Brighton, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis and being concerned in the supply between June 2010 and May last year.

Prosecutors initially claimed the plants would yield drugs with a street value of about £18,000 but the defence insisted it was about one third of that value.

Karina Arden, defending, said her client pleaded guilty on the basis he was a very heavy user of the drug, which he grew for his own use.

She said during the 11-month period he supplied drugs on four or five occasions to close friends.

Recorder Nicholas Hall adjourned the case to October 25 to give the probation service time to compile a pre-sentence report.