AN illegal teenage immigrant who kept watch over a Hampshire cannabis factory faces deportation back to Vietnam.

Thanh Nguyen, 18, will spend 30-months behind bars before being sent back to his homeland after pleading guilty to producing cannabis.

Southampton Crown Court heard how Nguyen had been caught by police at an address in Gresley Gardens in Hedge End with 500 plants.

Police said they believed the plants could be used to make powerful 'Skunk' cannabis, with a street value of up to £36,000.

Sentencing Nguyen, Judge Christopher Leigh QC said Vietnamese drug producers had targeted Southampton as somewhere to grow the drugs.

For the full story see today's Southern Daily Echo.