A gambling addict who turned cannabis farmer to pay off a £30,000 debt has been given a suspended jail term.

Kristopher Wearen used £6,000 of his winnings to set up the sophisticated growing operation at his rented home in Beverley Road, Horfield.

Police discovered a total of 60 cannabis plants in two rooms, being grown by specialist equipment, with the electricity meter bypassed.

Wearen, 22, pleaded guilty to production of cannabis as well as unlawful abstraction of electricity.

Brian Pixton, prosecuting, said the dining room and back bedroom each contained 30 cannabis plants some as high as five feet. The electricity meter had also been bypassed, Mr Pixton said.

He said scientists had estimated that if the crops had fully matured the entire yield of usable "flowering top" cannabis would weigh 3.86 kg – and he put the value of material found at just over £34,000.

Mr Pixton said Wearen gave himself up and told police he had set up the cannabis factory to clear a £30,000 debt.

At first he denied having anything to do with the bypass of the electricity meter.

Rupert Lowe, defending, disputed the true value of the cannabis and said it could be as little as £20,000, dependant on the crop's success.

He told the court his client had been a ground worker on construction sites since leaving school, but work dried up with the downturn of the house building industry.

He said: "His principle error was developing a gambling habit. It started slowly and grew and the result was spiralling debt on credit cards.

"He thought he would win money back, and having won an amount which allowed him to set up the system, he thought he would try that. It was illegal, beyond him, he had not identified someone to sell it to, he had not smoked any and he had become extremely scared the smell might reveal what he was doing."

The court heard Wearen had been to Gamblers Anonymous and stopped gambling. He felt he had learned his lesson both in terms of that habit and cannabis cultivation.

Handing him a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, the recorder Mr Ian Pringle QC told him: "In summer last year, to try to rid yourself of your gambling debts, you set up at a cost of £6,000 a cannabis production machine.

"You were going to gain £10,000 to £30,000. Your first crop failed, your second crop was a success and your third crop was on the way. This is so serious it does cross the custody threshold."

Wearen was also directed to carry out 150 hours' unpaid work.