British actor Jamie Waylett, who plays obnoxious school bully Vincent Crabbe in the Harry Potter movies, has been sentenced to 120 hours of community service by an English District Court for growing canabis at his mother’s home.

Waylett was arrested with a friend after he took a photo of police as the pair drove past. When police searched his friend’s car they found a number of bags of cannabis.

A search of Waylett’s mothers house found a sophisticated hydroponics system set up in one of the bedrooms, with 10 marijuana plants growing.

Waylett’s friend, John Innis, who admitted illegally possessing 11 bags of cannabis and a knife, was sentenced to six weeks’ custody in a young offenders’ institution, and fined £500 (about $US820).

District judge Timothy Workman told Waylett, who turned 20 Tuesday, that the cannabis cultivation was on a small, but sophisticated scale.

“Mr. Waylett, I accept that the cultivation of this cannabis was on a small scale, and this was not in any way a commercial venture on your part. Nevertheless you used a sophisticated growing system to do so”.

Passing sentence Judge Workman gave credit to Waylett for pleading guilty and for cooperating with the police.

Growing canabis in the UK carries a maximum 14-year sentence.