Three more landlords have been left with massive repair bills after discovering their rental properties were being used as cannabis factories in the past week.
In Leicester a landlord found two of his houses were being used to grow the illegal Class C drug just two months after he let them out.
In that time, his ‘tenants’ had installed an air extraction system and high-powered lighting rigs and started to grow more than 400 plants, worth approximately £400,000.
A woman is helping police with their enquiries on suspicion of cannabis cultivation.
The owner, who asked not to be named, said: “It's every landlord's worst nightmare. I've been in this business for 22 years but this is the first time this has happened to me – and it's happened to two of my houses at the same time.”
Sgt Dave Shields, of Leicestershire Police, said: “There is always a risk of fire because of the way the electrics are tampered with.”
‘Tenants’ also illegally tapped into the mains electricity supply to run a cannabis factory in a three-bed terraced house in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
When the landlord entered the house, it was in darkness, with plastic sheeting on the floors and walls.
On the first floor a cannabis factory covered all three bedrooms, but all that remained was the infrastructure, plant stalks and pots of dead plants, although police believe the operation could have cultivated plants worth tens of thousands of pounds.
The landlord told the Wiltshire Times: “They had such an intricate system. Each room had pipes coming down into them with extractor fans to get rid of the smell.
“The ventilation was going up the chimney to vent the smell. The police said that with what was in the house, you should be able to smell it down the road.”
Holes were made in the ceiling so wiring for the heat lamps could be fed through and the electrics will all need replacing.
Police officers retrieved 28 bags of compost, 124 small and 280 large plant pots and 10 bags of dead leaves.
Trowbridge Police Sergeant Vicky Smart said: “We have not seen anything of that size before.”
In Croydon, Surrey a landlord enlisted the help of a local builder to force his way into his property, finding what the police dubbed a “highly professional” cannabis cultivation setup.
On the premises were 300 young plants and enough equipment and supplies to fill out the three other floors of the building. The perpetrators had taken electricity from the building next door.
Police warn landlords to be vigilant and look out for the telltale signs that their properties are being used for illegal cultivation.
These include windows permanently covered, a pungent smell, visits at unusual times of day, or a vent protruding through the roof, or a rear window.
