A shamed shopkeeper who allowed a large-scale cannabis factory to be set up in a flat above his premises will find out tomorrow how long he will serve in prison.

A judge at Bradford Crown Court remanded Sansar Kang in custody overnight while he considers the length of the jail term after hearing how a raid by officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency uncovered the potentially lucrative factory in June last year.

Prosecutor Paul Mitchell told the court today that Kang and his wife owned the Helme Lane off-licence and convenience store in Meltham and lived in the flat above the shop.

In 2010 the area above the adjoining garage was converted into another self-contained flat and it was inside that flat that police discovered the cannabis factory last year.

Mr Mitchell said that four rooms in the flat had been adapted for growing skunk cannabis and a total of 265 plants were discovered.

He said the plants were being grown on a 12-week cycle which could have yielded about six-and-a-half kilos of the drug.

Such amounts of cannabis would have been worth £24,000 at wholesale prices.

'The investment and organisation suggests the intention was to produce as many harvests as possible,'' submitted Mr Mitchell.

When police searched Kang's shop various amounts of cash were recovered including around £30,000 which was kept in a under-floor safe which was hidden by a drinks fridge.

Mr Mitchell said that safe contained unused coffee grounds which it was thought might make it more difficult for sniffer dogs to detect items.

Father-of-three Kang, 33, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to charges of allowing his premises to be used for growing cannabis and concealing criminal property in relation to the money in the safe.

Today his lawyer Assumpta O'Rourke said no words could fully explain the amount of shame, embarrassment and remorse that he felt.

She conceded that the cannabis factory was a sophisticated operation which could have generated substantial sums of money, but she said there had been a ''third party'' involved in the offending.

Miss O'Rourke said Kang was the one who exposed himself to the risks by allowing his premises to be used and safeguarding the money seized.

She said Kang had been running his business for five years, but at the time of the offending he was struggling financially.

Miss O'Rourke said others preyed upon Kang's vulnerability at the time.

A co-accused 25-year-old Jonathan Smith, who helped to take some items into flat and watered and fed the plants on four occasions, was also remanded in custody facing a jail sentence.

Smith, of Lockbridge Way, Milnsbridge, admitted offences relating to the production of cannabis.

Adjourning the hearing Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said the case was a complicated one in terms of applying the sentencing guidelines, but he added that both defendants would be going to prison.