POLICE followed their noses to find a cannabis factory in a block of flats.

Officers were at the flats looking for someone else but found the building reeked of drugs.

The officers trailed the odour to the home of Paul Alexander Sykes and inside found 48 cannabis plants which would have produced a drugs haul with a street value of £11,600.

Sykes, 29, of Hare Park Avenue, Liversedge, admitted producing cannabis.

He was convicted at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court and sent to Leeds Crown Court for sentence.

His Honour Judge Christopher Batty was told that Sykes also took cannabis himself and had suffered serious mental illness as a result.

Last July he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act as a suicide risk.

Sykes was sentenced to eight months imprisonment suspended for a year along with a 12-month supervision order.

Mr Alasdair Campbell, prosecuting, told the court how police went to the flats at 11.35pm on May 9 last year looking for someone else.

He added: “They could not find who they were interested in but smelled cannabis which got stronger as they entered the flats. They literally followed their noses.

“When the defendant opened the door he was clearly under the influence of drugs. He was abusive and ultimately arrested.”

Inside the flat police found a “relatively sophisticated” drug production set-up with heating, lighting and an extractor.

There were 48 potted plants in various stages of growth, weighing scales, dealer bags and a grinder.

Mr Campbell said the plants would have produced 389 street deals worth £11,600.

When interviewed Sykes refused to answer most of the questions. Miss Sarah Barlow, for Sykes, presented a psychiatric report and said her client had suffered mental health problems due to cannabis.

He was sectioned last year as a suicide risk but was released. He had been drug-free for several months and was recovering well.

Judge Batty warned Sykes: “Do anything like this again and you will go to custody.

“You, more than anybody, should know the evil that is cannabis.

“The effect on you has been dramatic but happily you have seen that and the improvement in your mental health has been dramatic”.