A former world skeet champion who turned a blind eye to a cannabis factory being run in his Suffolk home by his former partner has been fined £2,500.

Sentencing 62-year-old Peter Usher, Judge Rupert Overbury said: “Your involvement was due to your loyalty to her. It was closing your eyes to what was going on.”

He said Usher’s partner had left the UK and hadn’t appeared in court in connection with the enterprise.

Judge Overbury fined Usher £2,500 which will be paid from the sale of his guns.

Usher, of The Green, Tuddenham, had pleaded not guilty to producing cannabis on May 14, 2018, abstracting electricity and concealing criminal property.

However, on Monday (September 28) he pleaded guilty to allowing premises to be used for the production of cannabis on the basis that the cannabis growing operation was set up by his partner while he was working abroad and that he had twice tried to put a stop to it by destroying crops.

He denied making any financial gain from the cannabis grown at his house.

The prosecution offered no evidence on the production of cannabis and abstracting electricity charges and asked for the concealing criminal property charge to be left on the court file.

The court heard that Usher was arrested following the discovery of a cannabis factory at his home in May 2018.

Isobel Ascherson, prosecuting, said several rooms had been used to grow plants and 16 mature plants, seven medium and 56 small plants were found at the premises as well as 54 cuttings.

She said the potential yield from the plants could have been 3-5 kilos.

Miss Ascherson described the set up as “sophisticated“ and said electricity had been illegally diverted underground outside the house and inside there was a large amount of equipment for growing the plants.

Steven Dyble, for Usher, said his client, who was a former world skeet champion, had been living with his partner who suffered from ill health.

She found that cannabis provided pain relief when prescribed medication didn’t work and at some stage she was used by others to set up the cannabis factory while Usher was working abroad.

On two occasions he had destroyed the plants and made his views about them known.

When he came back a third time and discovered more plants were being grown his partner had pleaded with him and because of his “considerable” feelings for her he had allowed the situation to continue for a short while.