The family of Welshman Daniel Holmes, currently serving a 10-and-a-half-year jail term in Malta for growing cannabis plants, expressed outrage after another man was jailed for just three years and fined €3,000 for cultivating eight plants.

“When Daniel saw this he was incredibly annoyed and upset. He told us about it yesterday and it makes us very cross. It’s just so unfair. We try to stay strong and then you see this. It’s adding insult to injury,” Mr Holmes’s mother, Kate, told WalesOnline.

The family referred to the case of 45-year-old Louis Lia, from Cospicua, who on Monday was found guilty of cultivating cannabis plants in his back yard in June 2007.

Mr Holmes was arraigned in June 2006 after the police found him in possession of 1.06 kilos of dried cannabis and 0.24 grams of resin, with a total value of €11,694. He was growing cannabis in one of the rooms of his apartment in Għajnsielem.

In November 2011, he was sentenced to 10 years and six months behind bars and fined €23,000. This was confirmed on appeal. Mr Holmes is taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights.