Vinh Van Nguyen, 39, paid a Russian gang thousands of dollars in borrowed money to smuggle him into Britain and ended up helping with the cannabis crop to repay his debt.

On Friday, he was jailed for two years for three offences of being involved in the production of the drug, when he appeared at Ipswich Crown Court.

Sentencing Nguyen, Judge John Holt said: "Given your criminality, I consider that your continued presence in this country is to its detriment."

He added he would be recommending to the Home Secretary that he be deported at the conclusion of his sentence.

The court heard how Nguyen was caught last April when a police officer stopped him on the A11 at Elveden because he was driving erratically.

After smelling a strong odour of cannabis coming from the car, the officer searched the boot to find bags of waste from a professionally-run cannabis growing operation, which Nguyen had been paid to dispose of.

Nguyen later told officers that he had been paid £220 and £500 a time to clear out 10 rented houses being used for cannabis production in West Suffolk.

The day after his arrest, raids were carried out at three addresses, which were found to be cannabis farms with heating, lighting and irrigation systems.

Mr Cox said hundreds of plants were seized from a house in Gorse Close, Red Lodge, a flat in Friday Street, West Row, and a terraced house in Abbotsbury Road, Bury St Edmunds.

Nguyen was linked to the operation by fingerprints found on electrical transformers and a bag of ballast, together with documents found at the West Row flat, which was his home address.

Mr Cox said all the properties had been rented by Vietnamese people who claimed to be working at nail bars in Mildenhall, Newmarket, Ely and Bury St Edmunds.

Nguyen, also a manicurist, admitted his involvement in the cannabis production, but denied getting any financial benefit from it apart from his wages as a labourer.

Amrik Wahiwala, in mitigation, said Nguyen had arrived in Britain in 2002 after paying a Russian gang 5,000 dollars to illegally get him into the country.

He had been in danger because of his involvement in an organisation which opposed the Vietnamese government at the time and fled his home by hiding in a lorry loaded with aggregate.

Mr Wahiwala said Nguyen's family had borowed the money to pay for him to be smuggled into Britain, but found themselves unable to repay it, which is why he took a succession of unofficial jobs ending up in helping with the cannabis production. He added that Nguyen realised what he had done was wrong.

Judge Holt told Nguyen that the 234 days he had already spent in custody while awaiting his court appearance would be taken into account.