A plumber who turned to cannabis growing to pay off his debts has been ordered to repay his £8,000 profit or go to jail.
Mark Davey set up a hydroponic system with 26 plants and 44 seedlings to try to recoup losses he made from trying to start a solar panel business.
He has now been ordered to pay back all the money he made from drugs under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Davey, 38, of Hill Crescent, Honiton, admitted producing cannabis in a case at Exeter Crown Court last June and was jailed for eight months, suspended for a year and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid community work.
He returned to the same court where Judge Phillip Wassall rubber stamped and agreed POCA order to repay £8,235 within six months or face five months in jail in default.
Bathsheba Cassel, prosecuting, said the amount which Davey had benefited from growing drugs had been calculated at £8,235 and this was the sum he must repay.
Kelly Scrivener, defending, said he did not oppose the order.
In the original case the court heard how Davey turned his loft into a cannabis factory to pay off debts after losing all his money in a solar panel business.
Mark Davey had already made more than £7,000 from the hydroponic system when his home in Honiton was raided by police and expected to make about £5,000 every few months if he had been allowed to carry on.
He started growing drugs and selling them to friends after sinking his savings into a solar panel business just before the Government reduced its subsidy for the industry.
Davey's problems got worse when he injured his arm while fitting a panel on a roof and suffered a hairline fracture which was not diagnosed and treated for almost two years.
He started taking cannabis to cope with the pain and moved on to setting up his own growing room in his attic.
Emily Cook, defending, told the original hearing it was social supply rather than large scale dealing and he had started growing cannabis because of financial problems.
She said he is a charity fund raiser who has organised a Three Peaks Challenge for a cancer charity and that he has now re-started his plumbing business and taken on an apprentice.
