A CANNABIS grower has been spared an immediate jail sentence after he claimed he was planning to make hemp oil.

Dylan Efford told police who raided his home in Buckfastleigh he was only growing male plants, which cannot produce skunk cannabis, and he intended to make a type of medical marijuana.

Efford is a former cannabis user who has a previous conviction for growing the drug but insisted his crop was going to be milled and turned into oil.

The 43-year-old said he believed the resulting product would protect him from cancer, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Maintenance man Efford, now of Brixham, admitted production of cannabis and was jailed for six months, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 125 hours unpaid community work by Judge Graham Cottle.

He told him: ’You gave an explanation to the police which I really don’t know what to make of. You have grown cannabis before and were convicted in 2012.

’Your luck will run out and if you get involved again, you will go to prison.’

 Miss Caroline Bolt, prosecuting, said, police raided Efford’s former home in Chapel Street, Buckfastleigh, on February 16 last year and found 21 plants in growing tents in two bedrooms.

 They had a potential yield which would have been worth £4,200 to £12,600 but Efford said he had no intention of selling any of the crop.

She said: ’He told the officers not to worry about staining their clothing because the plants were not flowering yet. He later said he was going to make a hemp oil which he took to prevent cancer.

’He had spent £1,000 on the equipment and he was not at all clear how he was going to extract the oil. He said he had not got to that stage.’

 Mr Brian Fitzherbert, mitigating, said Efford had submitted a basis of plea in which he insisted he had only grown male plants, which do not produce any skunk buds, and his only interest was medicinal.