with a street value of over £20,000
On the 4th April 2008 PC Mark Toulson & PC Glen Cheal from the West Hill Safer Neighbourhood Team were on routine patrol in the Whitlock Drive area of the West Hill Ward.
A call came over the personal radio asking for an officer to conduct a Missing Person enquiry at an address in Whitlock Drive. The Officers arrived at the address and conducted a very thorough investigation. This involved a physical search of each room in the house for the missing person.
Towards the end of the search (and having not found the missing person) the officers enquired if the property had a loft. The occupiers became nervous and agitated over this particular question. The occupier said the property did not benefit from a loft area.
One of the officers looked at the ceiling on the upstairs landing and noticed a loft hatch.
When they specifically pointed this out to the occupier the officers were told not to go up there.
PC's Toulson & Cheal were not at all happy with their response so they decided to investigate the loft. When they entered the loft they discovered a fully operational large scale cannabis factory.
The loft was equipped with hydrophonic equipment, a range of computers and, most importantly, 41 fully grown cannabis plants which can be best described as large bushes! As a result of this find additional Police resources were requested to attend.
In total five adults were arrested for Cultivation of Cannabis - this included the subject of the original Missing Person enquiry who subsequently returned to the address.
A spokesman for Wandsworth Police said: " Not only did the SNT achieve an excellent number of direct crime arrests but also managed to solve one of the Borough's Missing Persons enquiries."
April 18, 2008
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