Liaquet Ali was not the “architect or planner” of the drugs plot which could have brought more than £500,000 worth of skunk cannabis onto the streets.

Liaquet Ali was not the “architect or planner” of the drugs plot which could have brought more than £500,000 worth of skunk cannabis onto the streets.Defence barrister Balbir Singh said 50-year-old Ali was used by others as a “front” in order to secure the lease of the premises they had chosen for the large-scale operation - the former Probation Service office building in Longlands Road, Middlesbrough.
Mr Singh said his client was initially unaware of what the building would be used for until the papers were signed.“He became aware, of course,” said Mr Singh. “But he never, ever visited the Longlands after the cannabis farm was set up.”
His three co-conspirators were sentenced two weeks ago.Organiser Shafiq Aziz, 39, of Fountains Drive, Acklam, was jailed for three years.Damion Clenaghan, 23, of Cobham Street, was given an eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years with 200 hours’ unpaid work for his role as “errand boy”.Kaleem Khan aka Kevin Felton, 26, of Lothian Road, was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years with 300 hours’ unpaid work for being the group’s “patsy”.Ali, of Clifton Street, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce the Class C drug of cannabis - the same charge faced by his three co-conspirators.Judge Peter Armstrong gave Ali a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years, with 12 months supervision and 300 hours’ unpaid work.He said: “In 2007 or thereabouts, having led a hard-working life in the steel industry and as a taxi driver, I think you attempted and got a little greedy by the possible rewards from this scheme.“But this scheme was not of your making. You were not the organiser of it, you were not the architect. This was a foolish episode in your life.”The court heard Ali made no financial benefit from the conspiracy.The former Probation Service was raided in a major police operation on May 21 last year.The four-storey property had been converted into a cannabis factory. Rooms were filled with plants as well as ducting, cabling, fans, hoses, a ventilation system, heat lights suspended by wires, transformers and timers.
Officers seized 2,136 cannabis plants at various stages of growth and about 2,000 root sections from plants.A “conservative estimate” put the crops’ potential yield at 50kg, worth more than £500,000.