How an ordinary home in Swindon was turned into a cannabis farm

The Old Town property was one of several raided by police last weekend, leading to a haul of £1 million worth of plants.

The Adver was invited to take a look inside yesterday and was told hundreds of plants were found growing in pots in the living room and the bedrooms on Belle Vue Road, while heating and lighting were installed, and windows blacked out with plastic sheeting.

In order to ventilate the plants, reduce the humidity and the smell, extractor fans were put in place – all connected to an old chimney breast.

Plant pots were found in the living room

A victim of human trafficking was found inside and had been forced to look after the crops.

The stunned owner of the house had absolutely no idea it was being used by a criminal enterprise – and has been left with a repair bill running into thousands to repair the damage.

Terry Davis, who has owned the house with wife Alison for 10 years, said: “We’ve rented them the house since September. I was completely shocked.

“I’m angry, Alison is angry, we feel disappointed, we feel we’ve been let down. There was no alarm bell ringing because they were paying their rent.”

“In all the years we’ve been renting properties we’ve never had any issues. Usually, it’s families or professionals, good people, normal people.”

The couple have been using the same agent for years to rent the house.

He added: “All of our business was done through our agent.”

They only found out about what happened after the Adver reported on the raids on Friday.

“We found out about it because my sister has been reading the Swindon Advertiser and she texted me to say, ‘I think this is your house in Belle Vue’. That was the only way we heard about it.

“We drove past the property on Friday night because we couldn’t quite believe it. We saw the police and all the activity that was going on. And we realised it was real.”

Det Insp Paul Franklin and landlord Terry Davis

The following day Alison and Terry went inside to see all the damage done to their property.

“We were in shock really,” Alison said. “We have to get another front door and start again.

“It will cost us £6,000 to £7,000 to restore it. But until we can get clearance done, we won’t know the full extent of the damage.”

Eight factories were busted across Swindon – the others at separate rented addresses in Exmouth Street, County Road, Pakenham Road, Westcott Place, Alfred Street and Newhall Street.

Police and forensics at a house on Belle Vue Road

Following the discovery, two men aged 21 and 22 from the London area were arrested on suspicion of cannabis production and human trafficking offences and have been released on conditional bail.

Det Insp Paul Franklin, head of Wiltshire Police’s County Lines drugs team, told the Adver: “This is part of a much bigger network doing this systematically. 

“The set up here is professional in the way it is set up. So, from the outside, it’s perfectly natural, you can walk past every day and not notice what was going on behind that door.”

A total of around 140 plants have been found.

Around 140 plants have been found

He said: “I’ve seen this loads of times but coming to someone’s house and see that every room has been converted into a cannabis grow is quite shocking because I know at the end of the day we walk away and the landlord is coming in and they’ve got to deal with it and it’s a lot of time and money to remove it all,” he said.

He said the cannabis has been sold in the UK, adding: “As to where I don’t know. We’ve got eight properties. We think a street value of around a million pounds. 

“This will be sold quite feasibly within the south west and quite feasibly within Swindon. It will be part of the local supply of cannabis.”

Six men, aged between 19 and 28, had been trafficked from London to Swindon and were found at nearly all of the properties. The victims were taken away to be cared for by specialist officers.

“The properties we’ve been seeing had a person that was made to live there. They were foreign nationals and they had to look after the plants,” said Det Insp Franklin.

“They couldn’t leave, they had to live there. In this place, the basement had a kitchen and bathroom and that’s probably where they lived.

“We didn’t arrest them; they are treated as victims and we’re now trying to find who they are and where they are from and what’s the story that brought them over.”

When asked about the impact of the cannabis finds, he said: “It won’t impact as much as I’d like to. We found eight properties, but how many more are there that we don’t know of yet. If you can crop every 10 weeks and that’s the thing with cannabis for organised crime groups, it’s a constant supply of products.

“We can disrupt it, but you can start again and have another crop. There will be some disruption. Will it impact the flow of cannabis in Swindon and in Wiltshire? Probably quite small.”

Plants found on the first floor

Meanwhile, Alison is urging residents to report any suspicious activities and help the police.

She said: “We’re not naïve people and we’ve learned the lesson. If you hear a lot of drilling going on next door, if hear comings and goings at strange times, if you have any suspicions at all, then you should report them.”