by Annette Wilson

a judge has said.Landlords who rent out properties that are then used as cannabis factories should be investigated by the

The comment from Judge Timothy Nash at Canterbury Crown Court came after he jailed a Vietnamese man for being involved in cannabis production at a house in Folkestone, where police found 198 plants and arrested the 40-year-old defendant.

Earlier this month at the same court another Vietnamese was jailed for 15 months after 198 plants were found in a house in Margate and a two-year sentence handed down to a third Vietnamese in April for growing 100 plants in another Margate property.

In March a three-year jail term was passed on yet another Vietnamese after 1,777 plants were found at a Dover property. That crop, had it reached the streets, could have netted the producers about £1m the court was told.

When these cases are opened by the Crown it is usually said that the defendants were employed as gardeners or in a similar capacity but they are seldom the people who rent the property.

Judge Nash said this week: "One day the CPS will get round to applying their minds to the people who rent out these houses."

He said that while in no way suggesting it of the particular property owner in the latest case, Judge Nash said: "A lot of the properties are rented out and the landlord goes nowhere near them but happily receives the rent without paying any attention to what is going on.

"Or alternatively knows precisely what's going on and turns a blind eye as long as the rent comes in.

"The CPS should apply their minds as to whether or not the property owner himself is implicit in what is going on," said Judge Nash.