POLICE who raided a Broughton house found 51 cannabis plants with a potential street value of £39,000, a court heard yesterday (Wednesday).

The property in Fairfield Road, Broughton, was owned by joiner Mark Christopher Axon.

Axon, 27, of Cheyney Street, Chester, denies the production of the Class B drug and says he had rented the house out to tenants.

But a jury at Mold Crown Court heard the prosecution would call evidence from neighbours to say that the only people they saw at the house was Axon and another man, who had already admitted being concerned in the production of the cannabis.

Prosecutor Karl Scholz said the second man, Stephen Leonard Roberts, 41, would give evidence on behalf of the prosecution.

He said police found two bedrooms on the first floor had been converted into a cannabis factory.

In one bedroom, police found 27 cannabis plants each growing in a separate pot. There were 24 plants in another bedroom.

There were 600-watt lights providing heating and lighting, extractor fans and other equipment.

Arrested and interviewed, Axon said that he was a £15,000-a-year joiner who owned three properties. He claimed he rented out the property out to a couple for £400 a month.

Axon said he had not noticed any smell of cannabis when he had visited the previous week.

If anyone was growing cannabis at the house then it must have been his tenants, he said.

But Mr Scholz told the jury there was no furniture or cooker in the house.

He said the tenants’ agreement later produced by the defendant had not been signed by any tenant and had not been produced at the time of the alleged renting out.

The trial before Judge Niclas Parry continues.