TWO bungling crooks tried to make a small fortune selling five kilos of “unsmokable” cannabis plant clippings they found in the street, a court heard.

Robert Neaster, 31, of Braithwaite Avenue, Romford, and Tommy Brewer, 39, Ayres Close, Plaistow, east London, were snared in a random police stop with the laundry sacks of worthless twigs in their car.

Prosecutors at first believed they were trafficking valuable skunk and the chancers were charged with possessing the drugs with intent to supply, Inner London Crown Court heard.

But it soon emerged the plants had been stripped of their intoxicating leaves, making the chances of getting any kind of hit virtually nil.

Two of the four bags were sodden with water and had a “negligible street value”.

The real crop is believed to have been grown at a nearby a cannabis factory.

The pair claimed in interview they had found the bags at the roadside before being stopped in Barking Road, East Ham, east London.

They admitted possessing cannabis on the basis they “thought they might get something from it, but it was unsmokable”.

Their defence lawyers urged Judge Usha Karu to sentence them to a curfew but the judge adjourned for probation reports.

She remanded them both on bail ahead of sentence on November 23, telling them: “The fact I’m doing so is no indication of the sentence that may be passed.”

The pair each admitted possessing cannabis on July 4 this year.