The scene after Sidney
Clark crashed his plane at Farthing Common

by Keith Hunt

A pilot who was found to have a cannabis factory at his home
after crashing a light aircraft has been jailed for four years
three months.

Police went to Sidney Clark's £264,000 house in Barming,
Maidstone, after the hired Cesna 172 came down at Farthing Common,
near Hythe, in February last year and recognised the strong smell
of cannabis.

Clark later skipped bail and was then found to have set up a
cannabis factory in Shepton Mallett, Somerset.

The 59-year-old commercial artist, who is HIV positive, admitted
producing and possessing the drug.

Judge Charles Macdonald QC said the possible annual yield from
mainly skunk cannabis at the Barming address was 40kg worth about
£112,000.

View footage of Clark's
cannabis factory.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Clark, now of Trowbridge, Wiltshire,
had a number of previous convictions for drug offences in other
countries.

He was jailed for 17 months in Iran in 1977, eight years in
Bangkok in 1981 and four years in Japan in 1995.

The judge told Clark: "You are a persistent drug trafficker,
showing a persistent disregard for the law and you must be
punished."