A woman has been told to pay tens of thousands of pounds she made from growing cannabis.

Sally Peake, 50, from Bexhill, has been ordered to pay £45,000 after she grew the drug in her garage.

In November 2011 officers found she was growing 50 plants and found cannabis worth more than £5,000 that had been cut ready for sale. It was estimated the plants could produce £40,000 of the drug a year.

Police also found more than £7,000 in her home, cannabis seeds and a large quantity of cannabis in the freezer. She also had £55,000 in the bank.

She denied ever having sold it and insisted she grew it for her own use, smoking a joint a day. However the plants were producing more cannabis each month than Peake would use at that rate in a year.

Peake, of Selbourne Road, was found guilty of producing cannabis and abstracting electricity when she appeared in court, where she was given a 16-month suspended sentence.

She has now been told to pay the £45,000 she made from growing the plant within six months or face jail.

Detective Constable Carol Shoesmith, of Sussex Police, said: "Peake was producing cannabis on an industrial scale.

"The court has now ordered her to pay tens of thousands of pounds as part of her punishment or she could be jailed.

"The production and selling of illegal drugs causes problems both in the community and in society in general and we will always investigate any information we are given about it."

If you have information about drugs in your community call 101, email 101@sussex.pnn.police.uk or call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.