TORONTO -- A federal Crown attorney defended the justice department's crackdown against a 61-year-old North York man who yesterday was ordered to forfeit his $287,000 house and then sentenced to 10 months in jail because he grew $2,100 worth of pot.

"On the spectrum of punishment it is not disproportionate whatsoever," said federal prosecutor David Rowcliffe, adding that Tam Ngoc Tran's house appears to be just the second-ever marijuana grow-op house to be seized in the GTA and the first-ever seizure in which the homeowner has contested the government.

Tran was convicted last year of producing and trafficking marijuana after police seized 260 plants from his Jane-Finch home in 2007. Despite the fact he invested $3,000 in the grow-op, he only yielded $2,100 of plants and ended up $900 in debt.

WIFE ACQUITTED

Justice Kathleen Caldwell yesterday ruled in favour of the federal Crown's bid to take the house Tran bought for $194,000 in June 1997 with his now ex-wife, Lien Thi Pham -- despite the fact Caldwell acquitted Pham in their trial last year.

Tran's lawyer, Peter Zaduk, said his client, who has suffered two strokes and turned to marijuana growing after losing his welding job in 2006, has been brutalized by the justice department and the courts.

Zaduk compared Tran to Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. In Victor Hugo's novel, Valjean is relentlessly pursued for 20 years by a cop named Javert for stealing a piece of bread in hard economic times.

Tran told court during his trial that he turned to growing because he was too ashamed to go on welfare.

"I think he probably thinks that the state was kinder in Communist Vietnam than it is here," Zaduk said. "The system has treated him with brutality."

Tran yesterday apologized for his actions, saying: "I want to express my deep remorse for my wrong decision," he said.