Landlord unearths cannabis factory

6:50pm Wednesday 14th May 2008

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Broken furniture, holes in the ceiling and a knee-high pit of fertiliser greeted Joga Lohia last week when he entered the Whetstone flat he had recently let.

Having found tenants for the refurbished flat via a lettings agent, Mr Lohia and his son, who owns the flat, were horrified to discover what appeared to be a cannabis factory in the living room of the apartment.

Mr Lohia, a 49-year-old Tottenham resident, had appointed Ace Estates UK to rent out his son's flat in March, but became suspicious when nobody at the flat would answer the door to him on several visits.

Mr Lohia's anxiety increased when Ace refused to show him the tenants' references and he was finally forced to break into the flat last Tuesday after he discovered the locks had been changed.

Inside he found the tenants had fled, leaving behind a trail of devastation, including 42 bags of fertiliser and 100 large plant pots.

Mr Lohia is now facing a bill of £15,000 to reverse the damage.

He said: "I tried to access the property at all sorts of times in the afternoon, morning and evening, but no-one ever answered the door.

"I also tried calling Ace to see if they could help me.

"After about six weeks of trying, I broke in through the back door.

It was awful.

"They had stolen a vacuum cleaner, a kettle and all the kitchen utensils.

"They had ruined the carpets, destroyed all the cupboards, bashed holes in the ceiling for ventilation pipes and taken off all the doors.

"I was flabbergasted, and really frightened."

Barnet police officers went to the house to investigate, but Mr Lohia said there had been little action.

Sergeant Geoff Carter, of East Barnet Safer Neighbourhoods Team, has encountered this sort of crime four or five times in the past two years.

He said police often struggle to find the criminals because they use bogus references, but said that it was general practice for the police to take fingerprints and DNA from the scene of an incident, although neither had been taken in this instance.

Mr Lohia and his 24-year-old son are now spending all day and night working at the flat trying to repair the damage.

Mr Lohia said: "It's devastating. You just don't expect something like this to happen. But I'm just glad nobody got hurt."

Ace Estates UK were unavailable for comment.