A JUDGE has jailed 12 men, including five from Bradford, for their part in what is thought to be the largest cannabis growing operation in the north with an estimated annual yield of more than £2 million.

Some £55,000 had been spent equipping the converted warehouse with growing tents, ventilation, automatic watering and feeding requirements.

Almost 1,000 maturing cannabis plants were found, estimated to produce annual yield of £2.1m at street prices, when it was raided by police who had staked it out.

Sentencing the gang at Leeds Crown Court yesterday Judge Rodney Jameson QC said: “It is one of the largest that has been detected so far as I am aware in the north of England.

"There cannot have been many larger that have taken place anywhere in the country.

Timothy Capstick prosecuting told the court when police raided the warehouse in Holmefield Lane, Thornes, Wakefield, on July 17, 2012 they discovered 15 grow tents of which 11 contained 960 maturing cannabis plants while the other four were being used for a previously harvested crop.

There were also 342 young plants in a nursery growing area. The maturing plants would have been ready for harvest at different periods providing a continuous cannabis supply.

Several of the gang were arrested at the unit or in the surrounding area including Aidan Kent Panwar, 31, of Gerard House, Thorpe Edge, Bradford, who was found hiding in a brown wheelie bin.

The warehouse had been rented by Anthony John Stewart in November the previous year.

Police surveillance had shown those visiting the warehouse did not travel there in their own vehicles but would park them elsewhere, often at the Colton Mills complex in Leeds and travel in hired vans picking up the “gardeners”.

The judge said those gardeners spoke of earning £100 a day, the equivalent of £25,000 a year tax free “the sort of wage a teacher or nurse would be lucky to achieve.”

Officers also discovered a black bin liner in the back of one van containing discarded gloves, and rubbish such as pizza boxes and sandwich wrappings being cleared away so nothing was left at the cannabis farm which might have fingerprints or DNA on them.

Stewart, 41 of Glendale, Wakefield who was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to produce cannabis was jailed for eight years and three months.

Judge Rodney Jameson QC told him: “You are clearly an intelligent man with a forceful personality. I have absolutely no doubt you are the prime mover of this scheme. It follows yours is not only a leading role but the leading role in this conspiracy.”

Jamie Coolican, 37 of Whitehouse Lane, Leeds found guilty of the same offence was jailed for seven years six months. The judge said he had supplied much of the finance for the infrastructure.

Panwar, who admitted conspiracy was jailed for five years three months.

Ian Heath Green, 24 of Rowton Thorpe, Greengates, Bradford who admitted conspiracy, possessing cocaine with intent to supply and possessing cannabis was jailed for a total of five and a half years.

They were said by the judge to be the organisers at the “Bradford end of the workforce.”

Jeremy O’Connor, 31 of Thorn Drive, Leeds who was found guilty by the jury of conspiracy was jailed for five years. Christian Kaye, 35 of Pinfold Grove, Leeds was jailed for three years eight months and his brother Andrew Kaye, 39 of Coronation Parade, Halton Moor, was sentenced to three years four months after both admitted conspiracy.

Michael Paul Kaye, 56, also of Coronation Parade was jailed for a total of four years after he admitted conspiracy and a separate charge of producing cannabis.

Scott Harland, 27 of Exmouth Place, Undercliffe, Bradford was found guilty by the jury of conspiracy and jailed for three years six months.

Nicholas Coleman, 28 of Temple Avenue, Leeds and Samuel Shackleton, 22 of Fourlands Road, Idle, Bradford, were each jailed for two years four months and Rhys Iwanczuk, 22 of Jardin Close, Eccleshill, Bradford, sentenced to two years after each admitted conspiracy.