A local bird keeper was fined £200 after pleading guilty to cultivating a cannabis plant in his home.

Gavin Key, of Vineyard House, appeared before the Magistrates’ Court this morning after being charged with unlawfully cultivating a plant of the genus Cannabis.

Mr Key said he wasn’t aware he had grown a cannabis plant in his garden. He claimed his birds must have dropped some hemp seeds from their food into a pot and had then grown into a plant.