spoiler
"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 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 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.
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."
This wouldn't have ever been a problem if weed was legal.
innocent landlords are being left to pick up the pieces of London's growing drug crime problem.
Yes, the true victims, those poor helpless landlords
Yep. Here it's just a decent-paying job for horticulturists in regulated greenhouses with a 15% sales tax that funds public schools. The local black market is only for export to illegal states.
Oy, cant, ye need a loiscence for it, as a business.... (for professional reasons: I am not British nor informed in its laws)
Cannabis and the majority of its derivative substances (cannabinoids) are Class B controlled drugs in the UK under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. It remains a serious offense in the UK to possess, supply, produce, import or export cannabis except under a Home Office license. The licensing regime that applies to cannabis-related products is complex and specialist advice should be sought in relation to detailed requirements.
Anyways, srsly, how would ye deal with marijuana anyway?
You can't stop people from smoking weed if they really want to, so do what civilized countries do: legalize it and establish standards for what's acceptable to be sold. Pass some laws about not operating heavy machinery and the like so there's an enforcement mechanism for doing dangerous things while impaired. Users get the advantage of clean inexpensive product, producers get the advantage of being able to use banks, governments get the advantage of collecting revenue on what was already being sold.
Personally I’m sick and tired of these NIMBYs who are trying to restrict the activities of industrious small businesses. Why should we be preventing entrepreneurs from running successful businesses out of residential space? Once again it’s all a cover for “muh property values!”
Good 'un, PK... landlords get the shaft for bein' a semi-feudal rentier class... Classical Economy 101...
Classic false equivalency. I'll even be generous and accept that it's fucked up to rent your home and have this happen. BUT, flipping this back to "and that's why tenants have it too easy" is such a despicable response.
Also "growing drug crime problem". Isn't crime at a statistical decades long low??? Why is it I've been reading that crime is consistently "rising" for the past 20 years?
The article does point to the lack of regulation in the real estate agent industry as part of the problem so it’s not all tenant-bashing.
Hang on, I thought landlords assuming all the risk was one of the reasons we are supposed to be so grateful to them? Isn't this the sort of risk that they are so selflessly taking on when they rent out a property? If they aren't prepared to risk their property and have it turn in to a grow op, maybe they should just stop being landlords entirely.
Why did the guy even used his fucking FAMILY house to become a landlord?
Is he stupid?
Remind me again when John Barilaro, former governor of NSW, rented his house to friendlyJordies?
'Cannabis crooks dumped tonnes of soil in my bedroom'
"I can't believe they did that..."Ah yes the troubles of the landlord are so difficult! How are they supposed to do due diligence to make sure the real estate agent is actually a real one and not a scammer working to convert their home into a grow op? Actually have people check on the property??? Do the barest minimum of work for the not insubstantial amount of rent they collect? Nah too hard for these lazy sacks of crap. Better complain to the news about how they were ruined (I doubt it).
LMAO. I see that England's drug and housing policies are going great
I'm very confused as to what the purpose of dumping soil onto the floor was. Like did the landlord do this as part of an attempt at insurance fraud??
'10 tonnes of soil' is 22046 pounds of soil. And that's literal miracle-gro style store bought potting soil from the excessive amounts of perlite mixed in as shown in the article's pictures. A 50qt bag of miracle gro is like $15 and is ~20 pounds or something. You're telling me they just had like $16k of potting soil they'd bought, dumped out of the bag onto the floor, and then also were going through the motion of putting weed seedlings into pots as shown by the other pics???
It's completely dry soil in that room too - I just don't understand why the tenants would've rolled out a tarp (you can see it in the pic), unbagged the clearly storebought soil, and then filled up the various pots they have with it. And if it was to simulate actually being outdoors and to grow larger plants in '3ft deep soil', WHY the potting soil and why does the room's walls look spotless?? surely there should've been some water damage if not just obvious signs of plants being grown...
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.
where?? literally none of the pics have any burn marks or melted fixtures visible. I'm not gonna say grow-lights DON'T get hot, but that's pretty wild to claim and not have any pics of....
crazy how there's only like one pic of the central hallway in the article and the shit looks immaculate, which isn't what you'd figure from apparently having tenants using an entire room as a...open air store-bought potting soil storage facility?? like someone definitely bypassed the meter (good for them) so I don't doubt there was some sort of grow op going on inside the home but the soil thing and other claims are kinda sus lol.
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.
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.
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.
I rate this BBC article 5/5 for landlord and drug-war propaganda lol. someone please make the soil room make sense to me
As a horticulturist the soil room is nonsensical. 5 5gal grow pots on UK Amazon cost £10.82. You are still spacing the plants out the same either way. The pots are good for aeration, drainage, and minimising soil pathogens between grow cycles. I can't imagine the expense or effort of wasting so much more soil to do it this way.
Right??? Like the article/landlord clearly are making it sound like they were just growing full-sized weed plants in a 'soil room' but that's so nonsensical to me given that, like you said, pots or grow-bags can be upsized enough to grow 6ft actual trees at nurseries so I'm unsure why anyone would be like "lets just grow them in 3ft of soil in a bedroom". The landlord absolutely had to have dumped a bunch of pots or something out into a room as a way to make the 'damage' worse I don't believe anything else LOL
The only thing that makes sense to me is soil room is for discarded soil that was already used to grow plants, likely to avoid suspicion by dumping it outside (and it's easier). If they already pulled 400+ plants out it could be possible, but yea, that's a lot of dirt.
It seems like a PVC hydroponic set up would be easier to transport under the circumstances
