The UK's most up-to-date social housing and public sector news website
Landlord discovers £250,000 cannabis factory in tenant's house
Other Housing stories
- Pickles blasts prayers ban ruling - 'worship is hard-fought British liberty'
- Fact or Fiction? Tower blocks
- Council wrapped over revealing tenants' 'social housing status'
- Crowded Oxford shelter lets rough sleepers use floor
- Private landlord fined for allowing tenants to live in 'hell-hole' home
Advertisement
A landlord who dropped by one of his properties was stunned to find it had been turned into a £250,000 cannabis factory, police said today.
The 35-year-old man called at the multi-storey detached house in Langley, Berkshire, to meet his tenant but instead discovered up to 800 plants weighing as much as 10 tonnes.
Thames Valley Police said that within two months the house had been converted into one of the largest growing operations they have yet found.
Plants more than 5ft tall filled most of the rooms, which were fitted with a sophisticated lighting system. Had the factory not been discovered it could have yielded a crop worth up to a
£250,000 a year, a spokeswoman said.
The property had been sub-let by the tenant but no arrests have yet been made.
The landlord, who wants to remain anonymous, said when he called he knocked several times at the door and noticed all the curtains were drawn and the windows blacked out despite the fact it was a
hot day.
He walked around to the overgrown rear garden and had to break through layers of sheeting to peer in through a broken window.
He said: "I managed to pull down the layers and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw just rows and rows of plants.
"I couldn't see the ground. The plants were around 5ft 6in high. I could also see that the front window had been covered with some form of thick sheeting.
"There were wires everywhere, pipes coming from the ceiling and rows of lighting."
The landlord forced the lock on the front door and discovered the house in darkness with the furniture moved around and all the windows sealed.
He borrowed a torch and discovered the full extent of the factory before calling police.
He added: "I'm lucky that I discovered the factory when I did. The damage was not as bad as it could have been.
"The holes in the ceiling, ruined carpets, water and other damage are currently being repaired and I'm hoping that the work will be completed fairly shortly."
The landlord warned others in his position to make thorough checks on the people living in their properties.
