A MAN on benefits spent £1,500 to set up his own cannabis garden when lockdown stopped his usual supply, York magistrates heard.

But before he could start to use the drug from it, police arrested him - and confiscated his illegal plants.

Kenneth Andrew Yeoman, 57, of Peterhill Drive, Clifton, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis.

Magistrates ordered the equipment he had bought and used to grow the plants be confiscated, leaving Yeoman with nothing to show for his £1,500 outlay.

They also ordered him to pay a £120 fine, plus a £34 statutory surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.

Kathryn Walters, prosecuting, said police went to Yeoman's home on November 24 last year in connection with an unrelated matter and arrested him.

They searched his house as part of their original investigation and found a tent in a bedroom containing 10 cannabis plants.

They then arrested him again - this time for drug offences.

Defence solicitor Andrew Craven said Yeoman used cannabis for pain relief because he suffered from a "very bad" health problem.

He had a chest condition which caused him breathing difficulties. He found that taking cannabis helped him get to sleep.

When the country went into lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, his usual drug supply dried up because he couldn't leave his home to get some and dealers couldn't bring the drug to his home.

"He thought the next best thing would be to try and grow his own," said the defence solicitor.

"It was a rather expensive way to try and provide himself with some self-medication."

Yeoman had spent £1,500 setting up the equipment needed for the cannabis plants to grow and produce the leaves which can be turned into the illegal drug.

"It is something that had cost him the most money he has ever done in the last 10 years," he said.

Yeoman bought lights and used electricity to help the plants grow. But he wasn't wholly successful.

"He doesn't have green fingers," said Mr Craven. "He has got six of the 10 plants looking as if they could do something - but the police got there first."

The other four plants were not successful.

The tent had been of the type used by children for their play.

Yeoman lives on universal credit and also receives personal independence payments.

Although he had been in the trouble in the past, he had not been convicted of any offence for 10 years.

His last conviction had been for drink driving, said the defence solicitor.

"He is embarrassed to be back before the court for something like this," said Mr Craven.

The court heard Yeoman has no similar convictions on his record.