A WINDOW cleaner has begun an 18-month jail term after taking the blame for setting up a cannabis factory in Bishopstoke.

Luke Taylor, 22 refused to divulge who had helped him set up the operation last summer.

Southampton Crown Court accepted he could not have solely financed the plot that needed a £1,000 deposit on the house as well as the first month’s rent.

Prosecutor David Jenkins described how officers acting on a tip off raided the house in Guest Road.

He said: “Nobody lived there and the whole purpose was to convert it into a cannabis factory.”

In three rooms they found 88 plants growing well that would have yielded a crop of 17 and a half ounces every three months.

On arrest, Taylor admitted he tended the plants with nutrients found at the scene but refused to say why he rented the house and what would have happened to the cannabis.

“This was a commercial enterprise into which a great deal of thought and expense had been put,” remarked Recorder Stuart Jones QC. “I am far from persuaded it was for his own use.”

Taylor, who lived with his parents in Bognor Regis, admitted producing cannabis.