A 21-year-old man’s “amateurish” attempt to grow cannabis ended when police searched his home and found four dead plants in his bedroom.

Gareth Parker, of Abbey Drive, Enniskillen, was fined £200 when he appeared at Fermanagh Court and admitted cultivating cannabis.

A prosecutor told the court that at approximately 1am on Saturday, August 10, last year, police entered Parker’s home and arrested him in relation to a separate complaint. While there the officers noticed the smell of cannabis and saw herbal material and a pipe for smoking it on a table. Parker claimed it was a legal high. The officers searched the house and found four plants, a fan and light in a bedroom. Parker admitted the plants were cannabis and said they were dead.

The prosecutor said it was accepted the plants were “effectively dead”.

She told the court the herbal material found on the table was cannabis.

Defence solicitor Michael Fahy said Parker spent four months in prison at the start of last year and was given two years’ probation at the start of this year in relation to other offences.

He argued that if the drug offence had been dealt with at that time Parker would not have been given a further jail sentence.

Mr. Fahy told the court Parker has ceased all usage of cannabis, which had been a significant part of his lifestyle and offending. He hopes to get a job and accepts that to do that he has to remain free from drugs and offending.

District Judge Nigel Broderick told Parker the prosecutor had accepted this was an “amateurish” attempt to grow cannabis.

“There were four plants and I’m told they were virtually dead,” he added.