A CANNABIS smoker who used the drug to treat mental illness was found with a secret growing area behind a false wall at his house.

Matthew Roberts had almost half a kilo of herbal cannabis with a street value of £6,000 when police raided his home in Crediton and found evidence of recent cultivation.

He had boxed in a hidden space on the first floor where he had previously grown four plants and police seized the dead stalks along with lights, timers and other hydroponic equipment.

Roberts told officers that he was a heavy user and took cannabis to ease a painful physical condition and mental health issues. He claimed to have bought in bulk and only supplied a few friends as a favour.

Some of the drugs had been divided up into smaller bags, there were messages on his phone, and a list of names that police believed to be customers.

A judge at Exeter Crown Court told Roberts he was “a bit of a lucky boy” in that the prosecution had accepted his claim not to be dealing commercially.

Roberts (39), of Mill Street, Crediton, admitted production and possession with intent to supply cannabis and was fined £100 with £250 costs and ordered to do 20 days of rehabilitation activities.

Judge David Evans told him: “Whatever your particular views about the illegal status of cannabis, and how it does or does not help you, it is time you stopped using it and put it behind you.

“You have pleaded guilty on a particular basis and people may think you are a bit of a lucky boy that it has been accepted, but there you are.

“You will have to pay the fine and costs and make do without your cannabis.”

Miss Felicity Payne, prosecuting, said Roberts’s home was searched after he was stopped driving a van in Exeter and found with three ounces of cannabis and two mobile telephones.

They found a hidden compartment in the wall of his bedroom with the remains of a growing area and four dead plants behind it. There were bags of cannabis in his and a spare bedroom.

Miss Hollie Gilbery, defending, said the prosecution accepted his basis of plea which said he bought in bulk and grew cannabis mainly for self-medication but did supply a few friends as a favour if they asked him.

She said he suffers from physical and mental health problems which led him to use the drug but that his role in dealing was at the lowest level.

She said a crossbow found at his house was a child’s toy and was not there for any sinister purpose.