A CANNABIS farm was found in a house which an Orford dad claimed he had sublet to another man.

Two bedrooms at a property in Howley had been given over for the grow of 23 cannabis plants.

Tomasz Kiimkiewicz said he thought the man he had sublet to was growing around three or four plants for personal use, but said he was not aware of the actual scale.

Kiimkiewicz, of Cross Street, appeared before Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, assisted by a Polish interpreter.

He pled guilty to producing cannabis and abstracting electricity at an earlier hearing.

During Tuesday’s hearing, the dad-of-two applied to change his plea to not guilty for abstracting electricity, but the judge refused this.

Prosecuting, Derek Jones said that the offences came to light after police received reports of a strong smell of cannabis outside of an address on Fairclough Avenue.

Mr Jones said that officers attended the property in December 2022 and discovered that two bedrooms had been given over for the production of 15 large flowering cannabis plants and eight smaller ones.

They noted there were minimal items of furniture in the property, that there was minimal clothing, and that there was a council tax bill in the defendant’s name.

Lighting units and an extractor fan were also found at the scene.

Officers said that it looked like some buds had already been harvested in the bathroom.

Mr Jones explained that an electricity representative attended and confirmed that the electricity had been bridged.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that depending on the method the cannabis was sold, it had a potential value of between £3,000 and £22,000.

When Kiimkiewicz, 41, was arrested in the following February, he told officers that he had moved out of the Fairclough Avenue address in Orford around five months before.

Kiimkiewicz has four convictions for nine offences – including being concerned in the supply of a controlled class C drug in Poland.

Appearing unrepresented, Kiimkiewicz, who is a carpenter, said how he has two children and a long term partner.

He said: “I would like to deeply apologise for what happened.”

He said that subletting the property was a ‘big mistake’.

Before passing sentence, Judge Andrew Menary, KC, the recorder of Liverpool, said: “It is clear that you were not living there at the time, whether someone else was living there at all may be a matter of debate.

“You said you sublet the property to someone else.

“Quite what your involvement was is hard for me to determine.”

Kiimkiewicz received a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months.

He must also complete up to 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 150 hours of unpaid work.