A 72-year-old woman who produced cannabis with a street value of more than half a million pounds, will not have to pay a penny back in confiscation.

Linda Beck has previous convictions for growing cannabis at the same location in 2007, when she was claimed it was for 'horse bedding'.

Last year at Truro Crown Court Beck, of Cuckoo Park, White Cross, near Newquay, admitted producing 344 mature cannabis plants and was given a suspended jail sentence last year.

An investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act was ordered and found she benefitted by £276,415 but had no available assets which could be seized.

Sitting at Truro Crown Court, Judge Robert Linford said it would be 'grossly disproportionate' to make Beck sell her marital home and land, which would have rendered her husband homeless.

That meant there were no other assets which could be seized to satisfy a confiscation order.

Judge Linford said selling the land she owns with her frail husband would make £60,000  and she would be entitled to half of that, but selling it would leave her sick husband with nowhere to live.

In the case last year the same court heard  that police were tipped off about the commercial grow by members of the public due to the strong smell of cannabis.

Prosecutor Tom Bradnock said a 120 foot long polytunnel with water and electric supply, was found with plants up to seven feet tall about to be harvested with a street value of £535,000.

The court heard Beck has previous convictions for growing cannabis in 2007 and 2010 when more than 700 plants were discovered.

At the time of the sentencing in August 2022, Judge Linford said Beck knew what was going on because she had been caught doing the same thing at the same location 15 years ago.

He said: "All these years later you are at it again. Do it again and you are going inside no matter how old you are," he told her last year as he sentenced her to 14 months in jail, suspended for two years.