No one was home when police conducted the check between 3pm and 4pm on March 29, however, Paul Garry Palombo, 61, of Gowan Road, Lower Lewis Ponds, pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited plant and cultivating a prohibited plant.

According to police, officers had to force entry to the property to look for a person in need of help but there was no one at the house.

However, while there police found 12 cannabis plants ranging in height from 40 centimetres to 150 centimetres in various locations in the backyard.

The plants were found in locations including in a pot plant near the back door, a garden bed within a box trailer, a garden bed next to a shed, a pot plant behind the shed and in a vegetable garden.

On April 4, Palombo attended Orange Police Station and spoke to police and said the plants were his and he grew them to self medicate for constant pain.

Solicitor Andrew Rolfe handed up medical notes when Palomobo appeared in Orange Local Court for sentencing on Monday.

"He used the plants in part for pain relief," Mr Rolfe said.

Magistrate David Day said it was 17 years since Palombo had last come to attention for cultivating cannabis and there was not a consistent theme of cannabis offending.

For possession of the cannabis plants he convicted Palombo and gave him a 12-month community correction order.

He gave an identical sentence for the cultivation.