£1m family home used as skunk factory

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The secrets of the five-bedroom house near Croydon were revealed at the trial of two men who were jailed for their part in a drugs ring.

Manh Bui, 33, and Chau Phung, 19, were caught after a police helicopter fitted with thermal imaging equipment sensed unusually high volumes of heat coming from the property.

The pair, both illegal immigrants from Vietnam, were sentenced to a total of nearly four years, after which they will be deported. They ran the enterprise from the house in Pine Coombe, Shirley. Crown prosecutor Andrew Dickens told Croydon crown court it was by chance they were caught as police hunted burglars in the area last December.

He said: "Police knocked on the door and a woman answered. There was a strong smell of cannabis. They went in and found all five bedrooms bare of furniture - but a large quantity of plants had been set up in troughs."

Police also found hydroponic equipment used to grow skunk plants.

At the police station Bui and Phung said they had only been in Croydon for a month after stowing away in a lorry.

Mr Dickens added: "Bui made a full and frank admission that he had been feeding and watering the plants and he knew it was illegal to do so. He was getting £300 a week."

Bui was jailed for two years and Phung for 21 months. Judge Mr Recorder Jones said: "It is now all too common that innocent-looking suburban houses are being converted to factories growing cannabis."