AN EAST Lothian man was caught with thousands of pounds of cannabis plants when police raided his home.

Fraser Smith, 32, was found to have 10 mature cannabis plants growing in his attic when officers searched his former home in Macmerry.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told that the Class B drug cultivation was worth an estimated £9,000.

Smith, currently of Queens Drive, Haddington, was later that day caught by police behind the wheel of a vehicle while serving a previously-imposed five-year driving ban.

Officers pulled Smith over at a garage near Musselburgh and during the search of the vehicle they discovered a knuckle duster and a knife.

Smith appeared at the capital court on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to producing the cannabis plants, driving while banned and possessing an offensive weapon.

The court was also told Smith admitted a separate charge of using abusive language and threats towards a woman during phone calls between June 3 and 4 this year.

Prosecutor Ross Price told the court that police officers attended a property on Macmerry's Brierbush Road at about 10pm on January 22 this year.

The officers entered through an unlocked front door and, during the search, discovered the cannabis farm growing in the attic space.

Smith was later pulled over in a vehicle at the petrol station at Old Craighall where they found him to be driving the vehicle while banned.

The officers also found the offensive weapon, namely a 'black metal knuckle duster' with a knife that was concealed in the handle, within the vehicle.

Mr Price added that Smith had made an abusive phone calls to a woman whom he had been in an “on-off relationship” with.

During the calls he told the woman she was "a fat ****” and “a fat tramp” while he also threatened to physically harm her brother.

Solicitor Andrew Mellor said his client and the woman had “clearly not been getting on” at the time but reserved his full mitigation to the sentencing hearing.

Sheriff Peter McCormack deferred sentence for the preparation of social work reports and a restriction of liberty assessment to be prepared.