A FORMER care home in Wirral was transformed into a secret cannabis farm growing crops worth tens of thousands of pounds, a court heard.

When police raided the premises in Thornton Road, Bebington, a leafy residential suburb, on July 9 this year, they found seven rooms in the detached property had been transformed into cannabis growing rooms.

One of the gardeners, illegal Albanian immigrant Pjeter Ndoj, "appeared at a window and tried to jump out and escape but was detained by police," said Peter Hussey, prosecuting.

Inside the building officers found another illegal Albanian immigrant, Elvin Preci and both men were arrested.

Extra officers were brought to the scene to dismantle the farm and Scottish Power employee was called to make the electricity safe as the meter had been illegally by-passed.

He estimated that the loss to the power company was £10,000 - £11,000 if all the equipment had been running 18 hours a day for two months.

Mr Hussey told Liverpool Crown Court that the electrical equipment in the sophisticated enterprise included 79 lamps, each 600 watts, 79 transformers, 110 carbon filters and 28 fans.

A police drugs expert calculated that a conservative estimate for the value of the potential yield from the 366 plants found was £140,000.

Ndoj, 21, told police that he had been there for two and a half months after arriving from Holland in the back of a lorry.

After sleeping rough a man offered him food and water and asked him to tend the plants in the cannabis farm which had already been set up.

Preci, 20, said that he too had arrived here after stowing away in the back of a lorry and had also been approached to help look after the plants.

Jailing them both for 12 months Judge Anil Murray said that he accepted they had played a lesser role in the enterprise and had been living there and tending the crop.

"It was commercial heading towards industrial," he said.

Both men, who were assisted by an interpreter, pleaded guilty to producing cannabis and abstracting electricity.

Neil Gunn, defending, said that Ndoj, came from a modest life style with his family "having a bit of land" and he came here hoping to get a job in the construction industry.

The first month he was homeless and had been at the house for six weeks before the raid.

He was being paid £100 a week to tend the crop and stayed as he had a roof over his head as opposed to sleeping on the streets.

The court heard that both men have been served with deportation papers by the Home Office and both want to return home as soon as possible. Neither has any previous convictions.

Defence barrister Stella Hayden said that Preci had shown academic potential and came to the UK hoping to get into education.

He had a mobile phone with family Albanian contacts but lost it and ended up on the streets of London for about six months.

An Albanian approached him to come to Wirral to care for the cannabis plants for £100 a week and he accepted the offer as it meant he had somewhere to live, she said.