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Ramzan Ahmed leased two units at the Pilot Industrial Estate, off Manchester Road, Bolton, the larger one to accommodate his car parts business while using the smaller one to house a cannabis farm run with his co-defendant, Asim Ahmad.
The police became suspicious of Mr Ahmed's business exploits after noticing a string of adverts on eBay featuring relatively new car components under the guise of Permanent Discounts, which Ahmed owns.
According to Bolton police, the parts were suspiciously clean and undamaged, a far cry from the usual parts found salvaged from junkyards and scrap merchants.
Police raids on March 17, 2011, uncovered hundreds of car parts, and Ahmad was found with keys to another unit and a quantity of plant food.
When they opened the second unit they discovered a cannabis factory of 323 plants and capable of producing a yield of almost 13kg of cannabis. Sold on the streets the drug haul was worth up to £135,000.
Ahmed's fingerprints were found on cannabis production equipment inside the factory.
At their recent sentencing hearing, Vanessa Thomson, prosecuting, told how, amongst the large number of car parts stored at the unit, were doors, tailgates, bumpers and other parts from at least 14 stolen vehicles, including a Lexus, Mazda RX8, a Toyota RAV4 and three BMW 5 series.
The total value of the stolen cars identified was more than £130,000.
Judge Peter Davies sentenced Ahmad to three-and-a-half years in prison and Ahmed was jailed for four years, telling the latter that he was in charge of "an Aladdin's Cave of stolen car parts".