But Wodonga magistrate Susan Armour ruled that the “significant” quantity of drugs and measures used to hide their stash demanded being dealt with in a higher court.

Chiltern de facto couple Sally Gibson, 41, and Shane Emmins, 46, along with neighbour Kevin Nightingale, 51, were charged with a series of drug offences following a police raid in April last year.

Yesterday all three pleaded guilty to the reduced charges of cultivating a narcotic and using cannabis.

The trio will now face the County Court in late August, with barrister Nahrain Warda, who represented the office of Public Prosecutions, arguing the two men should be jailed.

Ms Warda admitted that the original charges alleged all three were involved in a joint operation at the homes on Masons Gap Road.

“But that is no longer the case,” she said.

Gibson and Emmins were charged with having more than 17 kilograms of cannabis, harvested from “super” plants, some more than three  metres high.

Nightingale was charged with having “just less” than a commercial quantity of cannabis, deemed to be 25 kilograms.

Ms Warda outlined details of the raid including a Colorbond enclosure that had no obvious entrance and that housed several plants.

She also listed a series of plants and seeds found throughout Nightingale’s home.

She said police had also chased Nightingale into the bush during the raid to find two boxes of cannabis.

But his attorney, barrister David Gray, said it was an unsophisticated set-up with none of the accoutrements to suggest drug trafficking.

He said cannabis was Nightingale’s only relief from back pain, the big harvest the result of a wet and humid summer.

Mario Vaccaro for the other defendants also said the crop was for personal use, Gibson using the drug to reduce the pain of irritable bowel syndrome.

“What we really have is seven plants, extraordinarily large because of the environmental conditions that summer,” he said.