A MAN grew a cannabis plant in the airing cupboard at his Kidderminster home, a court heard.

Police found the offending plant at a flat in Lion Street after Martin Wilkes was arrested for possessing six wraps, worth between £45 and £60, of the same drug in the street which he had bought with a back payment of benefits.

Mark Soper, prosecuting, said police were only alerted to the drugs when a car was blocking the road and officers went to see what was going on.

"The officer got out to speak to [the defendant] who was next to the front passenger window," he said. "As a result, the officer could smell cannabis and there was a bag on the seat with six wraps of cannabis and a bush ball.

"[Wilkes] immediately said it was his and there was also a number of cannabis grinders.

"One plant was found when police were searching his address after he was arrested."

In mitigation, John Rogers said the crime was not a sophisticated one and the Class B drug was being grown and bought for personal use to ease a medical problem.

"The plant was just a six-inch plant that was found in an airing cupboard. There was no sophistication about it. He grew it from a seed," he said.

"He [Wilkes] had been given a back payment of some benefit and he decided to spend that on cannabis. A number of years ago he had an accident and cut the tendons in his arm and he was going to use that cannabis to treat that pain."

Wilkes, 27 of Lion Street, Kidderminster, pleaded guilty to possessing and producing a controlled drug when he appeared at Kidderminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday, February 19.

Chairman of the magistrates, Roger Green, fined him £100 for the possession charge and £50 for the production charge. He was also ordered to pay £85 in court costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

The drugs were seized and destroyed.