A MAN from Watford has been exposed as the financial mastermind behind a sophisticated drugs factory.

Lemuel Haynes, 38, of Gladstone Road, Watford, sunk thousands of pounds into an illegal cannabis factory, then tried to cover his tracks when detectives pounced.

But on Tuesday a jury at Northampton Crown Court took four hours to find him guilty of producing cannabis by a majority verdict of 11 to 1.

During the six-day trial it emerged Haynes was a key member of a three-man gang who set up a state-of-the-art drugs factory in a Northampton warehouse.

Key evidence, found at Haynes' home, included leaflets on how to grow plants using high powered lighting, hidden inside a Watford Chamber of Commerce folder.

A piece of paper with the words "stink" and "hard" - street names for types of cannabis - written on it was also discovered.

Mr Geoffrey Solomons, prosecuting, said: "It is clear Mr Haynes was at the heart of this operation.

"It was he who provided the finance and purchased the premises to enable the factory to be set up."

Haynes, who is married with children, paid £45,200 in cash for the Melville Street warehouse - codenamed Tardis 1 by the gang - in February 1995.

When the jury visited it on day three of the trial, they were shown a labyrinth of more than 15 rooms containing high-powered hydroponic lights and irrigation systems hidden in the breeze block wall.

The entrance to the drugs factory was hidden behind a filing cabinet.

After the verdict was returned, Judge Julian Hall said it was thought there were other cannabis factories across the country - all codenamed Tardis - including one in Taunton.

He said when Haynes was arrested he asked his solicitor to tell an acquaintance that Tardis 1 has been compromised.

He added Haynes had stood to pocket up to £300,000 from the scheme.

After his arrest, £37,000 was found in a safety deposit box in Golders Green, London.

Haynes denied producing cannabis between October 1, 1994, and March 5, 1997.

He claimed he did not know what the warehouse was being used for and told the court he was "a bit disappointed" when he found out it was a cannabis factory.

Other gang members Earl Orru, of Luton, Barrington Samuda, of Harrow, and Mathew Maloney, of Taunton, all pleaded guilty to producing cannabis at an earlier hearing.

Haynes will be sentenced at Northampton Crown Court on February 6.

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