The case was heard at Canterbury Crown Court

by Paul Hooper

Police officers are often encouraged to "follow their nose" when cracking down on crime.

So when PC Paul Jane was on motor patrol in Reading Street, Broadstairs, he did just that.

And it led him to a secret cannabis factory with nearly 1,500 cannabis plants – with a potential yield of more than £500,000 – hidden inside a garden centre.

The owner of Kingsdown and Kenver Plant Nursery, in George Hill Road, had rented a huge greenhouse at the edge of the nursery to a man police have never traced.

But two men – hired as security guards – were arrested and both jailed for 18 months for their part in helping run the operation.

Jim Harvey, prosecuting, told Canterbury Crown Court the beat PC had been alerted in August last year "by a strong smell of cannabis", which led him to the nursery.

"He stumbled across what was in effect a cannabis factory. It was simply the case of him smelling very strongly a smell of cannabis in the area and him following that smell until it led him to a very substantial outbuilding, containing a very significant number of plants."

Andrew Bowen, 31, and Daniel Holloway, 42, both of St John’s Avenue, Ramsgate, were sent to prison after pleading guilty to producing cannabis.

Mr Harvey said: "There were nine separate areas in the very large greenhouse, which had been disguised with boards and panels so that it was not immediately obvious what was inside.

"A motor home was placed deliberately next to the greenhouse and police discovered CCTV cameras, one of which was hidden in a pile of scrap tyres, which were linked back to a laptop computer inside the motor home."

The factory was also been operating from "diverted" power supplies, which was estimated to have cost the electricity supplier £18,000 a year.

Bowen told officers he had been employed at the nursery as a driver and a handyman for some months before he discovered the cannabis factory.

The prosecutor said Bowen denied setting up the factory claiming he had been approached by a man called "Shagg" and offered £200 a week to act as security guard.

Bowen, who then armed himself with two machetes and a hunting knife, recruited Holloway to cover when he was away.

"you claim you couldn’t smell 1,500 plants being grown. i find that implausible..." - judge simon james

Father-of-five Holloway, who was also working at the nursery, claimed he hadn't realised that cannabis was being grown there – but a judge heard he had previous convictions for drug offences.

He later admitted he had been taking bags of the cannabis for his own use – and planned to steal the lot, but was thwarted by the police raid.

Judge Simon James told him: "Despite having previous convictions you, unlike the police officer, claim you couldn’t smell 1,500 plants being grown. I find that implausible."

After jailing the pair, he added: "I have to confess to having a degree of scepticism about the position presented to me that Bowen was recruited by an unidentified individual to watch over a crop of almost 1,500 cannabis plants and by a chance encounter he recruited a man 10 years his senior and with previous convictions for drug dealing.

"The whole situation then stretches incredulity when Holloway claimed he didn’t realise what was being grown.

"Despite what appear to me to be obvious lines of inquiry, apparently no other individuals have been arrested in respect to this operation and the prosecution say they are not in a position to adduce any further evidence."