A man shot in the shoulder as five masked men raided a cannabis factory in Little Chart has been jailed for producing the drug.

Police were called to Orchard Cottage in Little Chart Road in October after a 999 call by the victim's girlfriend.

They found Craig Haines bleeding from a shoulder wound - but as paramedics were treating him detectives were confronted by the overpowering smell of cannabis coming from the property.

Now a judge has heard how as Haines, 40, was heading to the hospital for treatment, officers tried to find the source of the smell.

Eventually police had to return to the property after calling in the services of a helicopter with thermal imaging equipment.

Today, Haines was jailed for three years and four months after Canterbury Crown Court heard how police found an underground bunker at the farm with a secret entrance under a stairway.

Haines, who still has pellets in his shoulder from the attack, pleaded guilty to the production of cannabis and abstracting electricity illegally.

Judge James O'Mahony said Haines had driven around in an expensive car which he could not have afforded on his income.

And the seven-room bunker had been guarded by a sophisticated CCTV operation where officers discovered cannabis plants being grown with a street value of more than £23,000.

Prosecutor Paul Valder told how police were alerted after a report of five hooded men, armed with a shotgun, forcing their way into the property and shooting Haines.

But it was only after arriving, police realised that cannabis plants were being cultivated - but couldn't work out from where the smell was coming from.

He said it was only after studying images from the equipment in the helicopter they were able to locate the bunker - and the sophisticated factory run on stolen power.

The judge told Haines he wasn't "some kind of itinerant gardening coming in and out just to water the plants".

"The fact that a gang of professional criminals came after you and shot you makes it clear that you were right at the heart of this operation. You were a significant player.

"This was one of the most sophisticated operations that this court, or indeed anywhere else, has heard of. If being shot by armed intruders hasn't taught you a lesson about becoming involved in this level of crime, I don't know what will."

Police are still hunting the five men.