Two men who grew more than £100,000 worth of cannabis in an abandoned warehouse have been jailed.

David Dolor, of Gonville Road, Thornton Heath, and Eran Phillip, from Crawley, produced the Class B drug between October 2013 and February last year.

The duo will between them spend 11 years behind bars after they were sentenced following a trial at Maidstone Crown Court on Thursday, February 16.

A passer-by noticed a strong smell of cannabis coming from the upstairs rooms on February 24 last year and contacted Kent Police.

Officers contacted the owners of the building and gained permission to enter three locked rooms.

Once inside, a production of cannabis plants was uncovered. The plants inside are estimated to have a street value of up to £103,320.

An electrical engineer also attended the property and found that the electricity meter had been tampered with so that energy could be abstracted without payment.

Records showed that the two offenders had rented the rooms since October 1 2013, and forensic analysis of a cigarette butt at the scene provided a match for Dolor.

Dolor, 38, was sentenced to six years imprisonment and Phillip, 37, of Long Close, was sentenced to five.

Police Constable Scott Morgan, the investigating officer, said: “This was a sophisticated operation to supply cannabis and we estimate that had the plants not been uncovered, they would have had a street value of up to £103,320.

“That is a significant amount of cannabis we have managed to take off the street and I welcome the sentence imposed by the judge.”