Mikel Selimaj, 45, of Ainsworth Street, Radcliffe, appeared at Manchester Crown Courtroom on Monday, October 19, after beforehand pleading responsible to producing hashish and abstracting electrical energy.
The court docket heard that police executed a warrant at his Radcliffe residence on July 22, 2025, and found round 60 hashish vegetation rising within the cellar.
The vegetation had been estimated to have a yield of between two and 4 kilogrammes of hashish, with a possible road worth of between £7,000 and £30,000.
Officers additionally discovered that the property’s electrical energy meter had been bypassed.
Fingerprint proof linked Selimaj to the cultivation, whereas officers recovered round £6,000 in money from a wardrobe.
Throughout sentencing, the court docket heard Selimaj claimed he had been befriended by a bunch of Albanian males who persuaded him to permit the hashish develop operation in trade for money funds and a share of future income.
He mentioned he was initially paid £2,000 and promised additional funds after the crop was harvested.
The decide accepted that Selimaj had no experience in rising hashish however rejected ideas that he had performed solely a minimal position.
The decide mentioned figuring out whether or not Selimaj had performed a major position within the operation was “not tough to simply accept”, noting that he had allowed the cultivation to happen in his residence and had been financially motivated.
The court docket was informed Selimaj is in lawful employment, has an 11-year-old daughter and has by no means beforehand been in bother with the regulation.
Sentencing him, the decide mentioned the hashish crop, as soon as harvested and bought, “might trigger untold hurt to the folks that select to smoke it”.
She added that Selimaj’s actions had “positioned his household in danger and put the group in hurt’s approach by letting medicine onto the streets of Manchester”.
The decide described Selimaj as “a wealthy man in all of the ways in which matter”, referring to his household and secure life circumstances, earlier than including: “It is greed that allowed him to participate on this operation.”
Aggravating components included the bypassing of the electrical energy provide and the actual fact the hashish farm was being operated in a house the place his youngster lived.
Nonetheless, the decide additionally took under consideration Selimaj’s responsible pleas, lack of earlier convictions and what was described as real regret.
Concluding that the offending didn’t cross the edge for a direct custodial sentence, the decide handed Selimaj a group order requiring him to finish 120 hours of unpaid work inside 18 months.
He was warned that he should adjust to the order and commit no additional offences.