A FATHER who turned his daughter’s Newport house into a cannabis farm to help pay off loan sharks has been jailed.

Raymond Moreland, 55, converted two upstairs bedrooms at mother-of-four Hayley Moreland’s Parry Drive home into a drugs factory.

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Prosecutor Jenny Yeo told Cardiff Crown Court how police found 41 cannabis plants growing there.

Raymond Moreland was cultivating his narcotics crop after placing large tents over them and buying lighting equipment online to help it grow.

If harvested, the potential 3kg cannabis harvest could have yielded an estimated wholesale price of between £8,000 and £24,000, the judge, Recorder Duncan Bould heard.

Ms Yeo told how Raymond Moreland had also bypassed the electricity supply to the house and had left Western Power Distribution £470 out of pocket.

She said that the homeless father had moved into his daughter’s home in November 2017 and Hayley Moreland, 32, had moved in with her mother.

He had been sleeping on a downstairs sofa when police raided the house on March 7 last year.

The court heard that Raymond Moreland had 11 previous convictions for 18 offences but none were drug-related and that he had never been to jail before.

The judge was told that he had a common assault on his record from 2014 after he had attacked a bailiff.

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Raymond Moreland pleaded guilty to producing cannabis and dishonestly abstracting electricity.

Hayley Moreland, who had no previous convictions, admitted allowing premises to be used for the cultivation of cannabis.

Gareth Williams represented both defendants.

The court heard from Probation Service officer Robert Newton who had interviewed Raymond Moreland for his pre-sentence report.

He said that the defendant was in debt after taking out “doorstep loans” at “exorbitant interested rates”.

Mr Newton said he had his own panel beating business, which had included Tesco among his clients, but it has suffered financial difficulties after contracts were not renewed.

The probation officer said the defendant had been “sofa surfing” after being made homeless but was now living with his son.

Mr Williams said of Hayley Moreland: “She wasn’t part of the enterprise, but she knew those plants were there.”

Recorder Bould jailed the father for 20 months and the daughter was sentenced to a 12-month community order and must carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.

He must pay a £140 victim surcharge and she £85.

There will be no Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings against the pair.