DIGGLE: POLICE FOUND CANNABIS FARM AFTER NEIGHBOUR WITNESSED BREAK-IN

A joiner who turned the top floor of his house into a high-tech cannabis farm was caught when a neighbour saw a break-in and called the police, a court heard.

Andrew Diggle, 49, asked next-door neighbour Ronald Bertie to keep an eye on his home in Dagenham, east London, while he visited his wife and son in Thailand.

So when Mr Bertie saw two men coming out of the building with a bulky plastic binbag, he called the police.

Officers arrived at around 10pm on April 12, 2010, and were immediately struck by a strong smell of cannabis, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

Upstairs they found more than 50 cannabis plants in the master bedroom, each three to four feet high, growing in pots on a raised wooden plinth.

A system of pipes was supplying them with water and UV lamps had been installed in the ceiling, while the windows were covered in silver insulating foil.

Another bedroom contained a similar platform and piping system, although the windows were only partially covered.

In the loft, officers found a system of clothes-lines used for drying leaves out ready for sale.

The only bedrooms apparently occupied were a box room upstairs, which appeared to be used by a child, and a small room downstairs, believed to be Diggle’s.

The defendant, of (30) Roslin Avenue, denies cultivating cannabis.

Giving evidence, Mr Bertie said his neighbour had lived in the house for three years but was often away visiting family.

He said: ‘He asked me to keep an eye on the house and phone his mother if there were any problems.

‘I was outside having a cigarette at nine or ten o’clock at night. I turned around, I saw all the lights on next door and I thought “what’s going on in there?”’

‘As I stood there, two people ran out of the house with a dustbin bag in their hands. They were just holding it, running off down the road.

‘I asked what they were doing and they said “shut up you old c***,’ so I called the police and said someone had broken in next door.’

He said he’d never been upstairs in Diggle’s house, but had often seen him carrying bits of wood in and out and heard banging noises through the walls.

At the time, he believed the joiner was building himself a new kitchen.

The first officer on the scene was PC Ben Lucas, who arrived with a colleague to investigate shortly afterwards.

Giving evidence, he said: ‘I remember the first thing was the smell. It was quite a clear and strong smell of cannabis, so strong I could smell it at the front door of the house.

‘The room looked like it had been disturbed, so the plants weren’t quite in order. There were a couple that had been knocked over and some had leaves taken off them.’

The trial continues.

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