A man who tended to a £350,000 cannabis farm in Aberdeen has been jailed for more than two years.

Arunas Dirgela, 52, admitted being the keyholder of a five-bedroom home in the Grandholm area of the city where police found evidence of large-scale cannabis cultivation in June last year.

The court heard drug officers found cannabis growing in nearly all the bedrooms and more than 100 pots related to cannabis cultivation.

Officers seized more nearly 22 kilograms of cannabis, which had a maximum potential value of £357,790.

Dirgela, a Lithuanian national, whose role in the cultivation was as “the gardener”, lived at the huge property but paid no rent.

Fiscal depute Brian Young told the court that the cultivation came to the attention of police on June 19 2022 when they received an anonymous tip-off claiming there was a disturbance at an address on Grandholm Grove.

“Police attended but received no response when they knocked on the door,” he said.

“The accused, who neighbours had seen coming and going from the property, was stopped by officers nearby.

“Their interaction with him gave officers grounds to search him whereupon they found a set of house keys to the property.

“On entering the conservatory, there was a strong smell of cannabis and the relevant search warrants were craved and granted.”

Police found four of the bedrooms in the house had been used for cannabis cultivation.

Plants found in three of the bedrooms had already been harvested, but police found 14 mature cannabis plants along with fans, transformers, light units, and ventilation and air filtration units.

The total value of cannabis seized, including the potential value for plants, was between £127,000 and £357,790.

Dirgela, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to one charge of producing cannabis and a further charge of being concerned in the supply of a controlled drug.

‘He fell on hard times’

Defence agent John Hardie told the court that his client had come to Scotland in 2021 after “having got himself in significant debt”.

“Work here didn’t materialise due to his lack of English and essentially he fell on hard times,” he said.

“In these dire straits, he was recruited by an organised crime group who were using this property as a cannabis farm.

“He was just there to look after the plants – promises were made that he would be paid, but he never was.”

Sheriff Morag McLaughlin told Dirgela: “Having regard to the nature of this offending on such a high commercial scale and notwithstanding your lack of previous record, a significant custodial sentence is warranted here.”

She sentenced Dirgela, whose address was given as HMP Grampian, to a total of 28 months in prison, backdated to June 21 last year.

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