A FARMER has appeared in court after a drugs raid uncovered £250,000 worth of cannabis in underground caverns below his family farm.

In July 2010 officers stormed Bank Top Farm, off Dark Lane, Kingsley, uncovering six underground chambers hidden beneath a shed, where police say they discovered more than 1,000 cannabis plants.

More than two years after Eric Hale Senior, 77, and Eric Hale Junior, 47, were arrested at the farm, Eric Hale Jnr has pleaded guilty to permitting the production of Class B drugs on the premises.

His father, also named Eric Hale, died in February last year, aged 78, before the case could be brought to trial. He was described in his obituary as a ‘modern-day Robin Hood, a devout Freemason and a Korean War veteran’.

Appearing before Chester Crown Court on Tuesday, Hale Jnr, now 49, admitted he knew cannabis was being grown on the farm but had no idea of the extent or ‘sophistication’ of the drug operation.

Hale was originally charged with conspiracy to produce Class B drugs and illegally abstracting electricity. He was found not guilty by Judge Nicholas Woodward after the prosecution offered no evidence against the charges during a basis of plea hearing on the day of his trial.

John Harry-Jones, defending, said Hale Jnr had been ‘tricked’ and was of ‘low capability’ as he initially didn’t know that it was drugs that were being grown.

At 9.30am on Friday, July 2, 2010, Cheshire police stormed the family-owned farm working on intelligence that drugs were being grown on the site.

When they searched under a shed officers wearing breathing apparatus and wetsuits uncovered a large-scale cannabis farm in six underground containers.

Speaking at the time of the raid, Inspector Phil Hodgson said: “It was a big bust for us and a very, very sophisticated operation. About 1,026 plants were recovered. The drugs were being grown in underground chambers with a shed on top.”

In August last year Bank Top Farm was badly damaged after a barn fire.

Hale will be sentenced on September 28 at Chester Crown Court. There will be a proceeds of crime hearing on February 15 next year.