LOAN sharks pressured a mum and dad from Cirencester into running a drugs factory near a primary school.

Nicola Measor, 43, and Toby Boswell, 44, both pleaded guilty to producing cannabis after a police raid uncovered up to £102,000 worth of the drug.

But they have avoided prison after a court heard they were coerced and pressured into running the drugs den by loan sharks to whom they owed money.

Measor and Boswell, who each have three children but are not a couple and met through working in the pub trade, had been running the cannabis factory in Hesketh Crescent in Swindon, around the corner from a primary school.

Today Swindon Crown Court heard that the pair had been producing cannabis at the three-bed semi-detached house after failing to pay their respective debts to loan sharks.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told the court that residents in Hesketh Crescent contacted police with their suspicions about activity at the house last year.

They also passed on details of a black Peugeot car that police stopped on November 14 last year, with Boswell at the wheel.

"In the vehicle was a suitcase and some sort of crate which both smelled strongly of cannabis," she said.

"The police went to the address with keys they found on him; inside there was a cannabis factory with plants in various states as well as flowering heads."

Also inside the property was Measor, whose clothing was covered in bits of cannabis plant.

When officers spoke to her, she said “I'm just helping out. I just wanted some extra cash for Christmas,” the court heard.

Miss Hingston said a total of 93 small cannabis plants were growing in the house and there was more than 4kg of harvested skunk.

“The potential value of all the drugs, the street value, was between £77,000 and £102.670,” she said.

“It seemed to be a fairly professional operation with plants in various stages to produce skunk cannabis.”

Boswell, of Arnolds Way, and Measor, of Dyer Street, said they were in arrears to a loan shark who had set up the cannabis factory and told them to work there to pay off their debts.

Measor, a former manager at the Golden Cross Inn in Black Jack Street whose three children are grown up, had been struggling to find accommodation after leaving an abusive relationship, her solicitor told the court.

Steven Young, representing Measor, said she had borrowed cash to get a deposit together on her rented home, but because her pay as a supervisor in a pub was so low she struggled to make repayments.

It was agreed that she would go to the property three times a week for about 20 minutes and there were instructions there telling her what to do.

Rob Ross, representing Boswell, said: "In many ways the word naive doesn't really do Mr Boswell justice. Of course it was a stupid thing to get involved in.

"The fact is the sort of people that lend money in pubs aren't the sort of people that abide by the same rules as the banks, and the banks are bad enough."

He said Boswell had been unemployed for a long time and had been struggling with money.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Peter Blair QC said: “Your involvement was plainly due to pressure and coercion: you were exploited.”

He gave them each a 12 month jail term, suspended for two years, and ordered them to complete 200 hours of community service.