Prosecutor Gareth Henderson-Moore said the cannabis growers had chosen a spot directly opposite the home of a fireman who alerted police to a smell of cannabis coming from the industrial premises.
Officers raided the property on June 22 last year and found both men inside the unit.
During a search of the property, officers found 755 cannabis plants at various stages of growth.
It was estimated that the commercial-scale crop would have produced yields of between 21,000g and 63,000g with a street value of between £63,000 and £317,000.
Following his arrest, it emerged that Son Le had been deported from the country in 2015 for an identical offence in the Warwickshire area, but returned to the UK in January 2023 to take up a new cannabis-gardening role in the Yorkshire Dales at the behest of criminal bosses.
Both men were charged with cannabis cultivation or production at the Hawes factory and admitted the offence on the basis that they were cannabis gardeners.
Although the prosecution had “suspicions” about Son Le’s basis of plea, they ultimately accepted this because there was no incontrovertible evidence to rebut his claim.
Son Le – who originally arrived in the UK in 2003, illegally and “no doubt on a lorry” – was also charged with breaching a deportation order and admitted the offence.
They appeared for sentence today, assisted by a Vietnamese interpreter, after being remanded in custody.
Mr Henderson-Moore said the landlord of the industrial unit, who had “no idea” it was being used for cannabis production, helped police get into the property where they first encountered Son Le.
“(Son Le) said he did not speak English and an interpreter was arranged over the telephone,” added Mr Henderson-Moore.
Through the interpreter’s intervention, Son Le told officers he didn’t have a key to the property at which point they found Hao Le. During a subsequent search of the unit, police found specialist equipment which had been rigged up “to produce cannabis on a commercial scale”.
Both men were said to be in a poor condition and claimed they had been coerced to tend the cannabis crop with threats of violence.
The cannabis farm was found in an industrial in Hawes. Photo: Google.
It emerged that Son Le had been deported from the UK in early 2015 after receiving a 10-month jail sentence for cannabis production at Warwick Crown Court. However, he returned to the country in 2023 through an “unknown United Kingdom port”, in breach of the deportation order issued in 2014.
Defence barrister Oliver Connor, for Hao Le, said his client had also entered the UK illegally in 2021 and spent his time “drifting (around the country) and sleeping rough until February 2024, when he was approached by two men who offered him work watering plants in exchange for accommodation”.
“This coincided with the time that his parents fell ill back in Vietnam,” added Mr Connor.
“Those for whom Mr Le was working said they would help him travel back to Vietnam in exchange for him continuing to work tending the plants. He continued to work towards that goal.”
Christopher Wood, for Son Le, said his client had been smuggled into the UK by others “to whom he owed a debt”.
“They have caused considerable problems for him on more than one occasion,” added Mr Moore.
He said that Son Le – whose last registered address was the industrial unit in Hawes – wanted to return to his family in Vietnam. He had been smuggled back into the UK in 2023 and “exploited by others”.
Judge Simon Hickey said it was evident that Hao Le had “found yourself…in the small town of Hawes in North Yorkshire assisting those higher up the chain to grow a vast amount of cannabis” worth up to £317,000.
Jailing him for eight months, he said that Hao Le had played a “lesser role” in the cannabis grow.
The judge said that Son Le’s case was aggravated by the fact he had returned to the UK illegally after being deported for an identical crime in a different part of the country.
He said although it was accepted that Son Le had been used as a gardener, it was unfeasible that he would not have known what he was getting himself into in Hawes.
He told Son Le: “You must have known, when you got into the difficulties with the people that employed you, that you were about to go down exactly the same route after finding yourself back in the United Kingdom, growing cannabis.”
Mr Hickey said that “deterrence must be an element of sentence to stop young men becoming (cannabis) gardeners to assist those further up the chain”.
Son Le was jailed for 18 months.