A RECRUITMENT consultant who specialises in finding legal professionals was caught growing cannabis at his home.

Bolton Crown Court heard how police called at Christopher Higson’s Bromley Cross home on July 16 last year and found 12 cannabis plants growing in a tent in a spare bedroom.

Sara Haque, prosecuting, said officers initially knocked on the door but, despite knowing people were inside and Higson’s car was outside, no-one answered.

They opened the unlocked front door and 27-year-old Higson appeared.

Miss Haque said: “The defendant came running towards the front door saying, ‘You can’t come in. I know the law.’”

Higson, of Grange Road, then told officers that the plants were upstairs in a spare bedroom.

They were being grown with a lighting and ventilation system and they were capable of producing four crops a year, yielding drugs valued at £16,000.

Kimberley Morton, defending, said Higson, who runs his own recruitment business and is recruiting staff for a firm of medical negligence solicitors, was growing the illegal drug for his own personal consumption.

Higson pleaded guilty to producing cannabis.

Sentencing him to 100 hours unpaid work and a £60 victim surcharge, Judge Timothy Stead told Higson: “Growing cannabis, even to avoid putting money into the pockets of drug dealers, is still a criminal offence.”