A New Malden man has been jailed for two years after being caught tending more than 200 cannabis plants at a secret drug “factory” near Liverpool.

Beverley Road resident Yoo Rim and his accomplice Yun Ho, from Raynes Park, were discovered sitting on the floor of a house in Southport during a police raid on March 3.

Plant food, compost, 23 reflective lamps and a sophisticated heating and lighting system were discovered in the house, along with plants capable of producing cannabis with a street value of £30,000.

Both men were charged with producing cannabis and pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday.

During police interview Rim, 33, said he had been granted asylum in the UK last June after travelling to the country from China, and had begun working at a Korean food shop in New Malden soon after.

He then agreed to take a job growing plants for £220 a week plus free food and accommodation and was taken to the Southport house, which was already set up for growing cannabis.

The North Korean said he had not realised the plants were cannabis, adding that when he asked to leave he was threatened with being stabbed before being shown how to water the plants.

Ho, 35, who was jailed for six months for his part in the crime, said he had also come to Britain from China, being granted asylum in April last year, and met Rim while living in Raynes Park.

He visited Rim in Southport just four days before the police raid and said while there he had helped a Chinese man transfer some plants to larger pots and been shown how to water them, although he did not do so.