A JOINER who ran a £500,000 drugs factory has been jailed after he was found with white powder covering his trousers.

Dad-of-two Anthony Marshall, 40, was arrested when police raided an apparently empty house in Whalley Range.

They found 396 cannabis plants and 40kg amphetamines at the property in Demesne Road.

Marshall - and unemployed Albert Dean, 53, - both pleaded guilty to producing cannabis. Marshall also pleaded guilty to a charge of being involved in the supply of amphetamines.

Marshall, of Saddlewood Avenue, Didsbury, had been released on licence from an 11-year sentence for conspiracy to supply class A drugs less than 15 months earlier.

Jailing him for seven years, Judge Martin Allweiss told him: "You cannot claim to have been unaware of the seriousness of dealing in drugs. You have never learned your lesson and went into this with your eyes open - no doubt in the hope of making easy money."

The court was told that the large, semi-detached property where the drugs had been found had been owned by a businessman running a property renovation company, but Marshall legitimately had keys as he had been asked to carry out repairs there.

Suspicions were aroused when windows at the house were kept permanently covered by either curtains or blinds and metal gates were kept padlocked.

When police forced entry in November last year, they found Marshall coming down the stairs with his trousers covered in a white powder. Dean was found in a rear upstairs bedroom also with powder on his clothing.

The court was told that the yield from the cannabis farm could have been anything up to £158,000 on the streets and the amphetamines could have netted anything from £200,000 to £400,000. The powder was also unusually pure, which meant it could have been diluted to further maximise profits.

Passing sentence at Manchester Crown Court, the judge said: "These figures are mind-boggling and only emphasise the sheer potential profits from drugs.

"This was clearly commercial production and would have brought, not only substantial profits, but a huge amount of misery along with personal and social problems had these drugs reached the streets."

Michael Hayton, defending father-of-two Marshall, said he was a multi-skilled joiner and builder who had successfully run two of his own businesses. He had expressed shame and regret at the way he had supplemented his income.

Dean, of Manchester Road, Chorlton, was jailed for 12 months. The judge told him accepted his involvement had been low level as a 'gardener' whose job had been to tend the cannabis plants.

Jeff Oultram, for Dean, who suffers from ill health, said his client had only become involved in order to obtain cannabis for his own use to brew a special herbal tea which he used as a pain reliever.