TUAN Phan is the latest of a series of Vietnamese nationals to be sentenced during the last year over links to city cannabis farms.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court has heard several lawyers argue in mitigation that defendants came into the country as illegal immigrants looking for a better life, only to be exploited by other parties. Almost all face deportation upon release from prison.

Detective Inspector Jim Wood, right, said "quite a proportion" of those discovered operating regional cannabis factories were Vietnamese.

DI Wood added of the four discovered in Cobridge: "These four may have been specifically identified for this role and would probably have no knowledge of Stoke-on-Trent at all.

"A 15-year-old who absconds from Milton Keynes is not going to know his way around the UK. He has made contact in some way with an individual in an organisational role."