A 25-year-old Calne man who used a tax rebate to set up a cannabis farm in his housing association flat has walked free from court.

Thomas Wright had 42 of the plants growing in a hydroponics set up when police searched his top floor apartment.

But after hearing the strain of the drug he was growing had a lower active content than normal plants, and was for his own use, a judge at Swindon Crown Court imposed a suspended sentence.

Wright said the seeds he obtained from an internet site had been mixed with a Russian vegetable which meant, while they grew quickly, the yield was a fraction of other plants.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, said police had been called to The Knapp, in Calne, on other matters when an officer smelled cannabis coming from another flat in the block.

Officers went to Wright's home in Pym House on Tuesday, June 26, last year and found a growing room containing the hydroponics set up.

Along with the plants he had ventilation, lighting and heating equipment and in the kitchen electronic scales, small self-seal bags and a cannabis grinder.

In the bathroom they found cannabis plants hanging by string from the ceiling as they were being dried out.

When he was question he told the story about buying 50 seeds which had been mixed with the vegetable, meaning the yield was five per cent of normal cannabis.

He said he had not expected them all to germinate but kept them all going as he smoked about an ounce of the drug a day.

As well as saving money by growing his own, though it cost him £50 a week in electricity, he said he did not like the cannabis that was on sale.

Miss Marlow said his phone and finances had been examined and the police could find no sign that he had been dealing in the drug.

Wright pleaded guilty to a charge production of a class-B drug.

Mike Pulsford, defending, said his client had a tax rebate of £1,300 and had used some of it to buy the equipment.

He said that the variety of cannabis had a lower THC content but higher quantities of another substance which is the 'chill out' factor of the drug.

Wright's mother told the court that her son had always been a 'difficult child' but he had started to change his ways after meeting his girlfriend, who is the same age as her.

He suffers from depression, the court was told, and is currently on medication including diazepam.

Passing sentence Recorder Tim Mousley QC said: "You are someone who has used cannabis on a daily basis for a number of years.

"You have told everybody you have not used since September last year. I also have to take into account the problems that you have had in the past and the problems that you have to a degree in your mental health."

He imposed a four-month jail term suspended for two years and told him he would be under supervision for a year.