CANNABIS farmers caught amid a sea of illegal plants worth £130,000 in a Greenock west end house are today finally behind bars — despite last-ditch pleas for them to be spared prison.

Vietnamese pair Bang Van Hoang and Ngo Thi Loan claimed that they were used as ‘pawns’ in the Finnart Street operation, as a court was told that their involvement lasted no more than one day.

First offender Hoang, 61, had racked up crippling gambling debts which ended his marriage, while Loan, 57, says that she had come to Greenock on the promise of being given a ‘cleaning job’.

But Sheriff Iain Fleming concluded that the duo — who first met in Hong Kong in 1988 — were nevertheless sufficiently implicated in the 322-plant drug factory for him to impose jail sentences of two years each.

His ruling came after a defence plea that Hoang, of Manchester, and Loan, of London, were at the ‘lower end of the scale’ in terms of culpability.

Lawyer David Tod, for Hoang, said: “He was never in control of these plants or in a position to say where they would go.

“Mr Hoang tended to them for a day, and that was the basis on which his guilty plea was tendered.

“His marriage broke down, essentially because of his gambling.

“What we have is two people who were brought up here and simply left here with no way of getting back to where they belonged.”

Loan’s lawyer told Greenock Sheriff Court: “She came to the town to assess whether she could take up a cleaning job — that was the information given to her.

“She started general cleaning and realised that something was amiss.

“My client went to the loft to remove rubbish and should have left and not taken any part in the assistance that she gave. She accepts that.

“She describes herself as naive and she feels highly abused by others.”
Loan insisted in court that she saw Hoang for the first time in 27 years on her way to the cannabis house on December 9 2014.

The pair — who have made seven court appearances since their arrest — had been due to be sentenced last November but the matter was postponed due to a lack of available language interpreters.

The Telegraph told previously how the upper level of the detached property on Finnart Street had been transformed into and elaborate cannabis factory, which was discovered by chance.

Hoang and Loan were ‘startled’ when police swooped because the growers initially couldn’t hear anything above the drone of propagating equipment.

An array of sophisticated electrical equipment — including heat lamps, fans, filters and flumes — were being used to produce enough cannabis to make more than 4,300 individual £30 street deals.

Internal doors and windows had also been sealed-up in a bid to stop any pungent aromas from the cultivation escaping outside.

The attic had been sectioned off for separate stages of the growing operation, and an area was set aside for drying harvested cannabis.

Hoang and Loan were only found out because a landlord, who wanted to carry out an eviction and change locks over non-payment of rent, stumbled upon the huge cultivation during a visit to the house.

Sheriff Fleming told the pair: “I take into account all that has been said by your lawyers, the content of the background reports and your respective ages.

“In your case Mr Hoang, you have a clean record, and Ms Loan, you have two very minor convictions.

“You have both lived law-abiding lifestyles for a long time.

“I also take into account the background to your involvement and that you were both involved for a day, perhaps only a matter of hours — but involved you were.

“The High Court has made it clear that even for people in your position custody is the only appropriate disposal.”

Loan began to weep as she was jailed for two years, while Hoang stood impassively as he was sentenced to 23 months and 14 days — taking into account a period he previously spent in custody following his arrest.