A sophisticated cannabis farm was uncovered in a four-bedroom, detached house after suspicious neighbours alerted police.
Drugs officers raided the property in View Road, Keighley, when residents expressed concern about lights being on all night and rarely seeing anyone coming and going.
When police got inside they found almost 400 cannabis plants in various stages of growth, together with a variety of equipment, including lighting and fans.
This week a 28-year-old Vietnamese man, Vam Thai, is beginning a two-year prison sentence after admitting cultivating cannabis.
After Tuesday's court hearing one of the neighbours, who witnessed the police raid and accompanied officers inside the house, told the Keighley News of his disbelief at what was discovered.
The man, who asked not to be named, said: "It was an amazing sight - I have never seen anything like it in my life.
"There were plants literally all over the house, including on the stairs and in the loft - fitted cupboards had been removed to squeeze in even more. There were compost bags stacked up to the ceiling and wires and equipment everywhere. The garage was being used as a nursery for young plants - I noticed as soon as the people moved in that the garage window had been boarded up with cardboard, which it transpires was to retain heat."
Bradford Crown Court was told on Tuesday that a police expert estimated the total haul of plants found had a potential yield of about £60,000.
No one was at the rented house when police executed their search warrant last December but two days later they were contacted by neighbours again when Thai and another man turned up at the property.
Prosecutor Gavin Howie said one of the neighbours followed the men in his car to a town centre taxi rank and he then gave police directions so they were able to intercept their cab. Although Thai made denials forensic tests linked him to a lamp used to light some of the plants as well as beer bottles found in the house. This week he pleaded guilty to a charge of cultivating cannabis on the basis that he had been working as a "gardener" at the house for about a month.
Thai's barrister, Jayne Beckett, said her client could barely say thank you in English and clearly did not have the language skills to be involved in any of the organisation of the cannabis farm.
In addition to jailing Thai, Recorder Christopher Williams made a confiscation order for the £1,315 he had on him when he was arrested.
Mrs Beckett said her client maintained that the money had been collected by him from the Chinese community in London so he could go back to Vietnam.
She confirmed that he now faced deportation following his prison term.
Jailing Thai, Recorder Williams said a prison sentence was inevitable for such a serious offence. "This was, as has been said by the prosecution, a sophisticated cannabis farm and it was extensively developed and you were part of the team, albeit at the lower end and only for a month or so before your arrest," he told Thai.
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