by Keith Hunt

A pilot who crashed his plane and was then found to be growing cannabis plants was caught with another crop after he skipped bail, a court heard.

Sidney Clark also has previous convictions for drug trafficking in Japan, Iran and Bangkok.

He escaped serious injury when his light aircraft came down at Farthing Common, near Hythe, in February last year.

Police then went to his home in Tonbridge Road, Barming, and discovered he was cultivating 400 cannabis plants.

The 59-year-old was on January 31 bailed to an address in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, but failed to return to Maidstone Crown Court on February 6.

A warrant was issued for his arrest and he was later detained and taken to court on May 8.

It was then revealed that police had discovered Clark had another crop of cannabis at a cottage in Batcome, Shepton Mallet, Somerset.

Alex Wilson, prosecuting, said the raid on April 17 revealed a smaller set up to the one in Barming. About 200 plants, most of them mature, were seized.

Electricity had been diverted to supply lighting and apparatus.

Clark said it cost him £800 a month to rent the property. He did so in a different name to avoid being discovered while on the run.

He added he sold the drugs he harvested to a group of eight to 10 friends at the rate of £100 an ounce, making £25,000 a year.

Mr Wilson said the sum was backed up by £150,000 going into his bank account in a six-year period.

Clark said he had been smoking cannabis for 44 years. He would produce something like four crops a year.

"He said he didn’t claim benefits," said the prosecutor. "His only source of income was the sale of cannabis."

Mr Wilson agreed with Judge Charles Macdonald QC it was a commercial factory.

The case was adjourned until June 29.