Police find £500k drugs farm at empty restaurant ...thanks to electricity bill
WHEN workmen moved into a boarded-up restaurant in a sleepy Nottinghamshire village, locals hoped it would be renovated and then reopened.
But as the weeks passed, there was little progress... but the area’s power company noticed a surge in electricity used at the site that was way beyond what builders would need.
They alerted police, who swooped and found at least 1,000 marijuana plants worth half a million pounds inside.
The drug was growing under specialised lighting mounted on the ceiling in ten rooms over
‘I moved here for a quiet life’
two floors at the former Farm House restaurant in Brinsley, which had shut two years ago.
Police said farms of that size were rare, while residents spoke of their shock. A 48-yearold, who did not give their name, said: ‘Six or seven weeks ago two people came every day to work on the place.
‘They said they were doing it up inside and were making the place nice, so we thought it was going to be a pub – suddenly we’ve got a cannabis factory on the street.
‘I’m quite shocked, it’s not what you expect round here – I moved here for a quiet life.’
Retired nurse Ashley Kell, 49, said: ‘When they put the boards up they were nice and polite. To see the police outside was a real shock.’ Nathan Walker, 27, a supermarket worker, added: ‘Round here it’s quite quiet, so I’m very surprised.’
Inspector Steve Wragg, of Nottinghamshire Police, said Western Power Distribution had alerted them to the electricity surge and they then obtained a search warrant.
He said they think the farm has been there for two months judging by the size of the plants, adding: ‘At a rough guess there are about 1,000 plants, although that is a conservative estimate. We work to the premise of £500 per plant, so it is around half a million street value.
‘Some of this would serve local drug misuse, but an operation of this size could be sold across vast expanses of Nottinghamshire.’ Inspector Wragg said the equipment alone would cost up to £10,000. Police will take samples of the plants as evidence but destroy the rest. A 26-yearold man has been charged with cannabis production.