A CANNABIS farmer said he was forced to tend a drugs farm by a criminal who threatened “a bullet” for him and his girlfriend if he refused.

Larry St Ange, 34, told a jury at Ipswich Crown Court he was “tricked” into accepting a job tending to a cannabis farm totalling more than 1,000 plants.

The court heard the “enormous” class B drug factory was found across several floors of the former Old Rectory Care Home, in Spring Lane, Lexden.

St Ange confirmed to prosecutor Jerry Hayes he had been approached last year while he was exercising in a London park by men wearing “sharp clothes and driving smart cars”.

The court heard the men befriended St Ange before offering him a job refurbishing and renovating a property, but did not specify where the property was or how much he would be paid.

Read more >> Disused care home was turned into 'sophisticated' cannabis factory, court hears

Mr Hayes asked St Ange about his claim he was threatened when he realised his job was to tend a cannabis farm.

He said: “At that point ‘Dean’ produced a bag with a gun and threatened a bullet to you and a bullet to your girlfriend?”

St Ange confirmed this.

Mr Hayes said: “You are telling this jury as a result of these threats you stayed, against your will, until your arrest in January?”

He added: “Mr St Ange, that’s a preposterous lie, isn’t it?”

He pointed out keys to the door of the makeshift bedroom where St Ange slept were found in his coat pocket, while a combination to one lock was found on a phone.

Gazette: Cannabis find

Giving evidence, St Ange said after his arrest he had felt confused in police interview after he was asked “question after question”.

He said when he arrived at the former care home and was shown a “big room filled with cannabis”, he tried to put up a protest but was threatened.

He told the jury: “I have no choice. I need to do the best out of the situation.”

St Ange, of Shepherd’s Bush Road, Hammersmith, and Ali Acer, 37, of Bodney Road, London, deny producing a class B drug.

Acer asserts he had not spent long at the property and had only been asked to attend to fix problems with the building’s electricity supply.

  • The trial continues.