Shop staff stunned to discover cannabis farm in the basement

A SHOP boss was amazed to find a cannabis farm and a fully furnished bedroom in the basement after he went to check the fusebox.

Staff at the Minuteman Press premises in a building on Bute Street, Cardiff, had noticed strange smells and sounds for weeks before the discovery.

But it wasn’t until a power-cut that they discovered the source.

When director Glenn Ingle, 51, went down to the basement, which is separately owned, he found someone had moved in a bed, desk, sofa and microwave and set up a tent full of cannabis plants. In total, 63 plants were removed by police.

Glenn said he fears the illegal farm was there for at least three weeks before he found it and called the police on November 17.

He added: “In the morning the power went off. I said I would go downstairs then.

“The staff said they had heard noises coming from there. I went downstairs and came back and said to my manageress, ‘Well the good news is it’s not the power. Bad news I think I know what it is.’ The next thing I did was to call the police because I had found a cannabis farm.”

The building has several floors and is rented by different people. The basement, which Minuteman Press has access to for maintenance reasons, has a separate entrance at the rear of the building.

Glenn said he thinks the perpetrator might have “scarpered” as he came downstairs.