"I
turned the lights on and it's 'Oh my God, 3ft of soil in my bedroom',"
Charles Reeves says, still in disbelief, as he shows the OceanNewsUK his home.
"I'm surprised the floors are even withstanding all this stuff."
Mr Reeves, a north London homeowner, returned from working abroad to find his family home transformed into a cannabis farm.
The
criminals, posing as tenants, had dumped 10 tonnes of soil in the
property, causing extensive damage and leaving the family devastated.
According
to experts, rental scams linked to cannabis farms are on the rise, with
criminals seemingly exploiting the lengthy eviction process to complete
illegal grow operations before disappearing.
Watch: "All I could smell was the weed and the soil"
The
Reeves family had advertised their property online as they prepared to
work abroad. They were approached by an estate agent who discovered they
would be away for an extended period. The agent promised them a family
of tenants, supposedly working for a City firm and with children.
However,
the "tenants" turned out to be scammers who never paid rent and instead
used the property for criminal activities. It was later discovered that
the estate agent was operating a fake site, and the tenants were bogus.
The
police told Mr Reeves it was one of the worst cases of this kind of
crime they had seen. They seized more than 400 cannabis plants from the
property, with an estimated street value of hundreds of thousands of
pounds.
Mr Reeves went to the property after the tenants had failed to pay their rent, having gained a court order to enter the house.
He
knocked on the door and was greeted by several men, with one claiming
the property was in good condition. Within half an hour, these men had
disappeared, although we don’t know what role they played in the farm.
"I
couldn't believe what I was seeing," Mr Reeves said, describing the
moment he entered the house. "The cannabis crooks dumped 10 tonnes of
soil in the family bedroom.
"The
whole place had been transformed into a drug factory. There were holes
in the ceiling, wires everywhere, and the stench was overwhelming."
Mr
Reeves discovered an elaborate setup with fans, lights and a
ventilation system powered by stolen electricity. The criminals had
rewired the property's electrical system to bypass the meter, allowing
them to power their extensive growing operation without detection.
In
addition to the tonnes of soil dumped on the upper floor, the property
had suffered significant structural damage. Holes had been cut into the
ceiling and walls to accommodate the complex ventilation system, which
was designed to regulate temperature and humidity for optimal plant
growth.
The sophisticated lighting
setup, which included specialist grow lamps, had been rigged up
throughout the house. The intense heat generated by these lamps also
caused damage to the property, with burn marks and melted fixtures
visible in several rooms.
"There was a
big curtain here. This is astonishing," Mr Reeves says. "They had fans
going, the lights were going, this curtain was being pulled in."
The emotional toll on the family, from both the rental fraud and the damage caused to their home, has been immense.
Mr
Reeves's wife Julia said: "When you're dealing with property,
particularly a home that you're in for nearly 20 years, and raising your
child in... It was pretty horrific to feel that you got attacked at the
core, that inner sanctum, that place of comfort, that we'd rely on in
the city, it's our home - very emotional."
Mr
Reeves said: "Emotionally, it feels like my home has been defiled.
That's what it feels like. The damage, the dirt, all this dirt
everywhere.
"This is the first real home I ever had. We're crushed and devastated."
Metropolitan
Police figures show more than 1,000 cannabis farms have been discovered
in London in the past few years, with a total of 1,056 found between
the 2018-19 and 2022-23 financial years. However, experts believe these
figures represent only a tiny proportion of the cannabis farms currently
in operation.
According to Allen
Morgan, one of the UK's leading expert witnesses from criminal drugs
trials and a former police officer who now runs a drug consultancy
service, rental fraud linked to cannabis farms is increasing.
"We're
seeing a definite uptick in these types of crimes, with criminals
taking advantage of the rental market to set up illegal grow
operations," he says.
"The criminals
exploit the legal system and the eviction process. They know that it can
take months to evict a tenant, even if they stop paying rent. During
this time, they can complete multiple grows and make a significant
profit before disappearing without a trace."
The
lack of regulation in the rental property sector has made it easier for
fraudsters to operate. Estate agents are not required to have
qualifications, despite handling significant assets. This can leave
homeowners vulnerable to scams and other criminal activities.
"If
something sounds too good to be true, it probably is," Mr Morgan warns.
"If somebody turns up offering to pay cash because they've been let
down and they need to move in immediately, then alarm bells should start
to ring."
The
cannabis trade has evolved from small-scale grows to sophisticated
multimillion-pound operations, allegedly run by international crime
syndicates. London, with its vast local market and extensive transport
network, has become a hub for drug distribution.
"The
issue that London has is obviously it is one of the main distribution
hubs for controlled drugs throughout the United Kingdom," Mr Morgan
explains.
"The cannabis trade is so
lucrative, what you get is when you convert a rented property, you
effectively obtain five, six, maybe seven separate growing areas where
you can produce cannabis plants, obviously discreetly and without any
sort of evidential link to you."
Police
have stated that what happened to the Reeves family is still under
investigation, but the reality is that innocent landlords are being left
to pick up the pieces of London's growing drug crime problem.
The
Reeveses hope that by sharing their story, they can raise awareness of
this growing problem and prevent other homeowners from falling victim to
similar scams.
"We want people to be
aware of the risks and to take every precaution when renting out their
properties," Mr Reeves said. "No-one should have to go through what
we've experienced.
"Not only was it the fraud, it was a destruction of our home."
