A MAN who grew a second crop of cannabis in his attic after the police busted the first £22,000 grow has been jailed for 12 months.

John Booth was told by Judge Jonathan Rose that the drugs could attract criminals willing to break down his door to steal them.

Booth, 48, of Ventnor Street, Barkerend, Bradford, pleaded guilty to two offences of production of cannabis.

His first grow was seized by the police on June 1 last year, prosecutor Katy Varlow told Bradford Crown Court.

The attic was split into two rooms containing 15 plants and 12 cuttings in one section and 25 plants in the second.

The electricity had been bypassed and there were scales, dealer bags, fans and plant food.

Booth had calls about growing and selling cannabis on his phone.

Miss Varlow said the crop had a potential yield of £22,400.

Booth was arrested and released under investigation, the court was told.

The police returned to his address on January 3 when they were alerted by a suspicious looking wire running down the side of the property.

The same two attic rooms had a total of 158 cannabis plants in them, the court was told.

Miss Varlow said they were either dead or too young for a yield value to be calculated.

Booth had 15 previous convictions for 32 offences, the court was told.

In 2005, he was jailed for four years for offences including possession with intent to supply class A drugs.

In mitigation, the court heard that he pleaded guilty to the offences at the first opportunity.

He accepted that the cannabis was not just for his own use.

He was selling it to fund his drug habit.

Booth’s last drugs conviction was 15 years ago.

He now wanted to move away from the area to make a fresh start.

Judge Rose said the first cannabis grow was a sophisticated operation with a potential value of more than £20,000.

He warned Booth that such crops attracted criminals who would rather steal the plants than go to the time and trouble of growing their own.

“Violent crime could be committed because you have a valuable commodity,” Judge Rose said.

He told Booth he had come across many cases where doors had been broken down in order to seize cannabis.

Booth was jailed for eight months for the first grow and four months to run consecutively for repeating the offence.

Judge Rose ordered that a timetable be set under the Proceeds of Crime Act.