A MAN who laundered thousands of pounds for a Brierley Hill cannabis factory has avoided a jail term.

Robert Williams, aged 56, handed over £37,816 in rent for an industrial unit in Pear Tree Lane after receiving the cash from a man he met at a supermarket.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court on Tuesday June 3, Williams, from Leabank Road, Netherton, was told his actions helped the gang growing drugs to avoid the law.

Recorder Barbara Carter said: "This sort of behaviour adds succour to those involved in crime, it can help them to remain undetected."

Williams admitted money laundering and was given a nine month sentence suspended for two years.

Jane Sarginson, prosecuting, told the court Williams made nine payments to the property management company that owned the unit, including one for nearly £10,000 on behalf of a timber firm supposedly based at the site.

He was rumbled when the landlord went to check on the unit and had difficulty reading the electricity meter.

He discovered a bay was being used for the cultivation of cannabis and the police were notified.

Miss Sarginson said: "When Williams was arrested he admitted knowing something was not right about the arrangement but he went ahead with it anyway."

She said he never asked where the money came from but assumed it was probably linked to the illegal sales of smuggled cigarettes.

That was because the people he was dealing with were connected to a racket that led to him being jailed for nine months for his part in a cigarette smuggling operation.

She added: "He was promised renumeration for his work as a courier but it never materialised. He was not involved in the drug operation."

Michelle Hewitt, defending, said: "This was all connected to the same gang of criminals for whom he acted as a guard and general runaround during the cigarette smuggling."

She maintained to the Recorder that if the money laundering had been dealt with at the same time Williams was jailed for his part in the smuggling racket - he got 21 months reduced to nine on appeal - it would not have added to his overall sentence.