Police have smashed an illegal drug factory which saw £152,000 worth of cannabis recovered from a remote bungalow.

It has emerged that a rented property at Pelutho, near Silloth, was turned into a cannabis farm during a seven-month period last year.

Officers who swooped on the address last August are said to have recovered 131 cannabis plants from two rooms.

They had been cultivated as part of a "professional operation" which involved four men.

Wayne Shepherd, 38 and Mark Midgley, 41, were living in Carlisle and Cockermouth while the other two were from Lancashire.

Christopher Butler, 44, is said to have taken on the leading role of gardener in illegal enterprise.

Thirty-three-year-old Steven Butler - no relation - is said to have supplied specialist equipment and knowledge.

While Shepherd and Midgley were also part of the operation, they performed lesser roles and more menial tasks.

All four men have pleaded guilty to being involved in the production of cannabis between January 31 and August 28 last year.

Shepherd, previously of Peel Street, Carlisle and Steven Butler, of Hall Park Avenue, Burnley, entered their guilty pleas at Carlisle Crown Court.

Midgley, of Slatefell Drive, Cockermouth, admitted the charge on a previous occasion as did Christopher Butler, of Dill Hall Lane, Church, Accrington. Christopher Butler has also confessed to further offences of abstracting electricity and causing damage at the bungalow.

Recorder Kevin Grice adjourned the case and requested pre-sentence reports on each of the men. They have been bailed and are due learn their respective fates at the crown court on January 6.

The judge said: "The fact I am adjourning the matter for reports as I do in each of your cases, and granting you bail, shouldn't be taken by any of you as any indication as to what will happen.

"In particular you Steven Butler and Christopher Butler will appreciate you are at real risk of immediate custodial sentences."

It emerged that police smashed the gang's operation thanks to a tip-off from the public.

And Detective Sergeant Duncan Brooker, of Cumbria police's west drugs unit, said: "If we hadn't received information about the grow being there in the first place it may have continued for some time or we may never have been aware of it."

He added: "Anyone who sees anything suspicious or smells anything suspicious anywhere else which they believe to be cannabis should call 101 or Crimestoppers."