A MAN who attempted to grow 80 cannabis plants in his garden shed was cultivating the crop in order to deal with a medical condition, a court heard.

When police visited Derek Doherty’s home in Parkfield Avenue, New Bury, they found a propagator tray full of seedlings hidden behind a partition in the shed.

Joseph Allman, prosecuting, told Bolton Crown Court on Friday it was an “extremely amateurish set-up” with no high-wattage lighting, ventilation or irrigation usually associated with cannabis farms.

Scrap dealer Doherty, aged 41, told police he usually smokes five cannabis cigarettes a day and spends up to £20 a week on buying the drug.

Richard Dawson, defending, added that the attempt to grow the drug, which was to be for his own use, was “doomed to failure.”

He said: “In a cold, dark outside shed, in all likelihood the plants would have withered away.”

The court heard that Doherty, who pleaded guilty to producing cannabis, has received a caution for a similar offence a few months earlier, but was using cannabis in order to help alleviate pain in his leg caused by a road traffic injury.

Judge John Appleby sentenced Doherty to be electronically monitored and observe a 7pm to 7am curfew for four months.