A Sussex businessman accused of investing thousands of pounds in a conspiracy to grow industrial quantities of cannabis has been cleared.

David Miles, 41, of Lewes Road, Blackboys, near Uckfield, was acquitted by a jury at Bournemouth Crown Court yesterday following a three-week trial.

The prosecution had claimed Miles was the "money man" behind the "sophisticated and professional" drug-growing venture at an industrial unit in Dorset.

He was alleged to have provided around £45,000 to set up the factory.

Throughout the trial Miles said he thought the factory was going to be used to stock computer data.

After yesterday's hearing he said: "I am tremendously relieved at what has happened.

"I never thought the police had enough evidence even to bring this case against me to trial."

His life-long friend Michael Newson, 38 a detective constable in Dorset, was found guilty for his part in the venture.

The court heard after weeks of planning, the highly-organised gang began kitting out the industrial unit with eight growing rooms.

They took advice on how to cultivate a variety of cannabis plants, including the potent "skunk half strain" from seedling to harvest in 12 weeks.

A timed watering system, cooling fans and special tables to hold planting tanks were installed to ensure their investment produced results, which could have been worth as much as £2.5m a year.

Unknown to the gang, they were already the target of a surveillance operation and were arrested when police swooped less than three months into the scheme.

Miles had denied conspiring to produce cannabis and conspiring to supply the drug in a sophisticated operation.

Newson, of Ashley Road, Poole, and his co-conspirators will be sentenced next month.