A mum and son bought cannabis seeds from a city shop before setting up their own drugs factory on a village housing estate, a court has been told.

Susan Patton, 43, and Craig Hubbard, 21, had 57 plants growing in the bedrooms of their home in Park View, Sturry, when they were raided by officers.

The pair were rumbled after a neighbour noticed the distinctive scent of the Class B drug and alerted police.

Patton told officers she bought the seeds to grow the illicit plants from UK Skunkworks, which has a branch in Northgate, Canterbury.

Both mother and son escaped immediate jail sentences after admitting possessing and cultivating cannabis plants in December last year.

Ian Foinette, prosecuting, said mum-of-two Patton told how she bought further equipment before setting up the operation, including lights and extraction systems.

She later told police that one of the bedrooms had been set up by an ex-boyfriend before she took it over.

Mr Foinette said: “She grew all the plants and consulted various sites on the internet to find out how to grow them, and then dried them and prepared the cannabis buds until she could sell them, although she hadn’t actually sold any.”

The judge, recorder Cairns Nelson QC, quipped that the commercial supply had been “nipped in the bud”.

Phil Rowley, for Patton, said the background to the offending was a history of mental health issues affecting her son “and the fact that he believed cannabis helped”.

Mr Rowley added: “For what was a misguided but genuine belief that she was assisting her son, she began growing it. It became obvious the yield was greater than they would need and it just mushroomed.

“But this was not something that was conceived of as a commercial operation.”

Kieran Brand, for Hubbard, said he used cannabis recreationally and then to “self-medicate”, but it “spiralled out of control”.

He added that Hubbard was hoping to go to university to study philosophy and law.

Both were given 21-month jail sentences, suspended for two years, and 12 months supervision.

A UK Skunkworks spokesman said the shop sold cannabis seeds for “souvenir purposes” but declined to comment further.

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