Retired landlord of the Dinkum Pub in Polegate Brian Bayes, 68, is facing jail after being convicted of growing the class C drug and money laundering £77,648 from the sale of the cannabis.

He was house-sitting for son Daniel when officers sniffed out the drugs while guarding the scene of a fireworks factory blaze in 2006 where two firefighters lost their lives.

He and wife Sandra, 64, who had been staying at the farmhouse for two weeks while their new home was fumigated, were arrested and charged with cultivating the drug.

During a two-week trial, a jury was told how Brian Bayes' DNA was found on a cigarette butt inside a barn at the farm at Lower House Farm at Laughton, near Lewes, where 200 plants were growing.

He denied all knowledge of the 'established and sophisticated' factory but was found guilty by a jury at Lewes Crown Court this week.

The charges against his wife were dropped halfway through the trial when the judge ruled she had no case to answer.

Adjourning sentence on Bayes, of High Barn Cottage, Upper Dicker, Judge Charles Kemp slammed the OAP's son who was absent from court throughout the trial.

The judge said, "If this enterprise was initiated by Daniel Bayes then the time that elapses between now and the sentence date would be a good time for him to put in an appearance or some explanation as to why he effectively permitted the exposure of his parents to this risk.

"If the man's got the slightest bit of decency and compassion, at the very least his parents would expect that. To expose his parents like this is monstrous."

Turning to Brian Bayes, he added, "I take the view this enterprise was not started by yourself but that you entered into it and played your part in it. It's for his conscience, not yours.

"The most likely outcome is that you will be in receipt of a custodial sentence."

During the trial the jury heard police had been manning a cordon sealing off the area the farm was in when they smelt cannabis and discovered the factory.

The drugs were found growing in an old cowshed helped by lighting, heating and fertiliser, with cut grown plants hanging from the ceiling to dry in one room.

Mr Bayes claimed he had no idea how his fingerprints got onto a sheet of plant growing instructions found in the barn, or how his DNA got onto the intact cigarette butt found in a rubbish bag.

In police interview, the couple claimed large amounts of money transferred into their bank account was connected to their life savings from the sale of their pub, the Dinkum in Polegate, before they retired.

When asked to explain where the money — often deposited in large cash sums — came from, Mr Bayes replied, "I tend to buy and sell a few things to get cash together, like cars and antiques.

"I advertise things or I say to people 'I've got a nice whatsitsname', whatever it is. I used to meet a lot of people in the pub and I used to do restoration and people knew about it.

"I buy and sell a few things, I'm a bit of a dealer."

He told officers other amounts were to do with the sale of the couple's house in Polegate.

But he had difficulty remembering what each individual payment was for, telling interviewing officers quizzing him over a £3,250 urgent foreign money transfer: "The whole transaction evades me, I am 68 years old."
The court heard the couple had made two urgent foreign money transfers but Mr Bayes denied they were to his son.

Brian Bayes is due to be sentenced on January 9 after reports are made.