A man burgled a commercial building after mistakenly thinking cannabis was being grown on the premises, a court heard.

Ross Harvey, 27, was involved with others in a break-in at the Gibbett site Pig Farm, in Bradenham, near Dereham, after he was wrongly informed cannabis was growing there, Norwich Crown Court heard.

The site had been the base of one of the county’s largest cannabis farms back in 2013.

Ian James, prosecuting, said when they broke into a unit they did not find any cannabis, so instead stole about £7000 worth of power tools and a generator worth £500 from another unit on the evening of October 14, last year.

Harvey and another man also broke into premises on Rashes Green, Dereham, four days earlier and stole 1000 litres of the red diesel along with power tools.

Mr James said some of the items had been recovered.

Harvey, of Northgate, Dereham, admitted three commercial burglaries.

The court heard he had a number of previous convictions with 26 convictions for 60 offences.

Rob Pollington, for Harvey, said it was his addiction to cannabis at the time which got him involved.

“He had an entrenched addiction to cannabis and heard the building at Bradenham was a place where cannabis was being grown. He went there for the purpose of stealing it.”

Mr Pollington said when he found there was no cannabis at the premises, power tools and a generator were stolen.

Mr Pollington said that Harvey was at the periphery of the offence and said:: “He should have walked away at that point.”

He said that since then he had stopped using cannabis and not re-offended.

He said: “He is free and clear of cannabis completely.”

Recorder Douglas Edwards sentenced Harvey to 18 weeks custody suspended for 20 months.

He was also ordered to do 120 hours unpaid work.

Recorder Edwards said he was suspending the sentence because of the progress Harvey had made.

He said reports showed he was now of low risk of offending.