A VIETNAMESE national will be sent back to his home country after serving at least two years and three months in prison over a cannabis crop found at a Davoren Park home.

Loc Khac Nguyen, 59, faced the Adelaide District Court on Thursday, after pleading guilty to four offences related to growing cannabis at two premises at Davoren Park and Angle Park in 2018.

He was sentenced to four years in prison, with a non-parole period two years and three months.

In sentencing, Judge Liesl Chapman took into account Nguyen’s clean criminal history, admission to police and deportation upon his release.

The court heard police attended a home at Davoren Park on October 8, 2018, and located 100 cannabis plants growing across four rooms, as well as proscribed equipment for growing cannabis including globes, shades and ballasts.

The plants were expected to yield between $30,000 and $80,000 worth of cannabis when sold on the street.

The next day, Nguyen and his male co-accused were found at a home in Angle Park along with 65 more plants and arrested.

In all, Nguyen was charged and pled guilty to cultivating a large commercial quantity of cannabis, cultivating a commercial quantity of cannabis and two counts possessing proscribed equipment.

Judge Chapman said Nguyen left school in Vietnam in year four and took up fishing to support his family, before joining the army in 1978.

In 2012 he travelled to Australia on a traveller’s visa and stayed illegally and sent money back to his wife and family in Vietnam.

“When you were arrested you admitted the offending,” Judge Chapman said.

“You say that you met a woman at the casino.  You were hired by her to look after the cannabis plants.  You were to be paid $150 per day.”

Judge Chapman added although Nguyen’s role in the operation was as a “gardener”, he was still “an important part of the criminal enterprise”.

“The sentences for your offending must try and stop others from coming to Australia and making money illegally by growing cannabis,” he said.

“You need to understand that this type of offending is serious and the laws in Australia impose heavy penalties in order to try and protect the community from the growing of cannabis and the distribution of that drug in the community.”

The sentence was backdated to the date of Nguyen’s arrest, meaning he is eligible for release and will be deported in December.