(CTN News) – “I turned on the lights and it’s ‘Oh my God, 3ft of soil in my bedroom’,” Charles Reeves recalls, still in shock, as he shows the BBC 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 house had been converted into a cannabis farm.
The perpetrators, posing as renters, poured ten tonnes of earth on the residence, inflicting considerable damage and leaving the family devastated.
According to experts, rental scams involving cannabis farms are on the rise, with crooks allegedly leveraging the lengthy eviction procedure to finish illicit grow operations before fleeing.
As the Reeves family prepared to work abroad, they advertised their property online. An estate agent approached them after discovering they would be absent for a lengthy amount of time. The agent offered them a family of tenants who allegedly worked for a City corporation and had children.
However, the “tenants” turned out to be scammers who never paid rent and instead exploited the property for illegal purposes. It was later uncovered that the estate agent was running a fraudulent website, and the renters were phony.
The police told Mr Reeves that it was one of the worst incidents of this type of crime they had witnessed.
They seized almost 400 cannabis plants from the house, with an estimated street worth of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Mr. Reeves went to the home after the tenants failed to pay their rent and obtained a court order to enter the premises.
He knocked on the door and was greeted by three guys, one of whom claimed the property was in fine condition. Within half an hour, these men were vanished, and we have no idea what function they had on the farm.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Mr. Reeves recalled, recalling the moment he entered the residence. “The cannabis criminals threw ten tonnes of earth in the family bedroom.
“The entire facility had been converted into a narcotics manufacturing. There were holes in the ceiling, wires everywhere, and the odor was unbearable.”
Mr Reeves discovered a complex contraption involving fans, lights, and a ventilation system fueled by stolen electricity. The perpetrators had rewired the property’s electrical system to avoid the meter, letting them to run their large growing operation undetected.
In addition to the tonnes of soil thrown on the upper floor, the property had sustained serious structural damage. Holes had been created in the ceiling and walls to accommodate the complicated ventilation system, which was intended to adjust temperature and humidity for optimal plant development.
The sophisticated lighting equipment, which included specialized grow lamps, had been installed throughout the home. The extreme heat created by these lamps also caused property damage, as seen by burn marks and melted fixtures in various rooms.
“There was a large curtain here. “This is incredible,” Mr Reeves says. “They had fans going, the lights were going, this curtain was being pulled in.”
The family has suffered a significant emotional toll as a result of both the rental scam and the destruction to their property.
Julia Reeves, the husband’s spouse, commented: “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 stated, “Emotionally, it feels like my home has been defiled.” That is what it feels like. The damage, the grime, there’s dirt everywhere.
“This is the first actual home I have ever owned. “We are crushed and devastated.”
According to Metropolitan Police figures, more than 1,000 cannabis farms have been discovered in London in recent years, totaling 1,056 between 2018-19 and 2022-23. However, experts estimate that these figures represent only a small percentage of the cannabis farms now in operation.
According to Allen Morgan, one of the UK’s leading expert witnesses in criminal drug trials and a former police officer who now runs a drug consultancy service, rental fraud involving cannabis farms is on the rise.
“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,” adds the researcher.
“Criminals exploit the judicial system and the eviction procedure. They understand that it can take months to evict a renter, even if they cease paying rent. During this time, they can finish numerous grows and make a substantial profit before departing without a trace.”
The absence of regulation in the rental property industry has made it simpler for scammers to operate. Despite dealing with major assets, estate agents are not required to have any qualifications. This makes homeowners exposed to scams and other illegal activity.
“If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Mr Morgan cautions. “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 progressed from small-scale cultivation to sophisticated multimillion-pound businesses purportedly overseen by multinational crime syndicates. London, with its large local market and extensive transportation network, has become a drug distribution center.
“The issue that London has is obviously it is one of the main distribution hubs for controlled drugs throughout the United Kingdom,” says Mr. Morgan.
“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 claimed that the Reeves family’s situation is still being investigated, but the reality is that innocent landlords are forced to pick up the pieces of London’s expanding drug crime epidemic.
The Reeveses hope that by sharing their experience, they will raise awareness about this expanding issue and keep other homes from falling victim to similar frauds.
“We want people to be aware of the risks and to take every precaution when renting out their properties,” Mr. Reeves added. “No one should have to go through what we did.
“Not only was it the fraud, it was a destruction of our home.”