An elderly couple who like to keep the heating on at home were left ‘shaking in fear’ when police burst into their home searching for a cannabis farm – after a thermal camera on a helicopter mistakenly identified it as a drugs den.
Pensioners Barry and Mavis Lovelock were finishing their breakfast when the ‘terrifying’ raid occurred.
Nine officers stormed in because a helicopter camera had wrongly recognised their toasty terrace home as a possible cannabis farm.
But after charging upstairs looking for cannabis plants and the powerful lamps used to grow them, the sheepish officers came back down empty-handed after quickly concluding their tip-off had been ‘not fully accurate’.
The heat signature on the couple’s roof had instead been caused by their two gas fires, which they keep on around the clock in the chillier months.
Leicestershire Police has now apologised. They said another raid on a separate property in the street in Newfoundpool, Leicester, had found a large cannabis farm, with 79 plants being taken.
Mrs Lovelock said the ‘awful’ incident, which took place on March 15 at the property the couple had lived in since 1978, had left her in tears.
She said: ‘They told us the camera on the helicopter had noticed our roof glowing white but that was just because we have the heating on all of the time.
‘People of our age feel the cold so we need the heating on.
‘We have two new gas fires downstairs and the gas engineer told us they will warm the whole house and they do. We keep the doors open and the heat circulates. We have electric wall heaters too, but we only need to put the electric heater on in the back bedroom.’
She said the couple had just finished their breakfast when she noticed a group of police officers outside as her husband, a retired water board worker, went to make another cup of tea.
Mrs Lovelock said that police then ‘hit the door’, prompting Mr Lovelock to shout: ‘Hang on mate’, before somebody shouted ‘Stand clear’ from the street outside.
She added: ‘They just rammed the door in. It was awful. They knocked the gate at the back in as well.
‘It was terrifying and I said to them, “What the devil do you think you’re doing? There’s two pensioners here”.’
The couple, who celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary last year, were shown a warrant with their house number on it.
Mrs Lovelock, a former hospital worker, added: ‘They got in and two of them ran upstairs, but they only went to the top of the stairs and ran back down.
‘I think there were about nine of them altogether, maybe more.
‘This could have been avoided. The warrant was dated from February 18 so they had plenty of time to make the proper checks, but they don’t appear to have done so.
‘I’m 78 and my husband’s 80 and he suffers with Parkinson’s. Nobody comes and goes.’
Leicestershire Police has since said it would reimburse the couple for any damage caused during the raid, the Lovelocks said.
They have been asked to get quotes for the cost of replacing their front door and back gate, they added.
The couple have two sons, Paul, 46, and Austin, 48.
Mr Lovelock said: ‘Mavis has been left really shook up, and struggling to sleep.
‘After most of the officers left, and they were only here for four or five minutes, two stayed behind and were apologetic. One female PC was quite upset.
‘A rapid response repair came round and fixed the front door, but told us not to use it until it’s been properly replaced.’
He said he had ‘confidence in the police, but it has gone downhill a bit after this’, adding: ‘They said they checked everything, but it doesn’t sound like they did.
‘The actual cannabis farm was three doors down.’
A spokesman for Leicestershire Police said that officers executed two warrants at properties in Leicester, which were carried out based on information received that related to the production of cannabis.
They would not elaborate on where the intelligence came from for ‘operational reasons’, but forces are known to use thermal imaging drones or heat-seeking cameras on police helicopters to determine residential cannabis farms through their tell-tale heat signatures in the roof space.
The spokesman added: ‘Due diligence was completed prior to the enforcement taking place.
‘However, the force acknowledges that the information was not fully accurate and no plants were found inside.
‘Officers have spoken to the residents living at that address regarding the incident to apologise, provide reassurance and explain why the lawfully executed warrant took place.
‘At the other property, 79 cannabis plants were seized. No one was arrested and an investigation is continuing.’
This is more wasted taxpayer’s money spent on the police and their ongoing enforcement of a cannabis prohibition law that has failed miserably for decades.
And why should this couple have to get their own quotes? The police should be getting somebody in to do the job that same day for goodness sake.
They broke it, they fix it – damn cheek expecting an elderly couple to fix their mess.
The actual cannabis farm was three doors down – nobody can claim due diligence for this one!
I think that the police owe this couple a lot of compensation for their evident blunder, and that wasn’t a joke. Police and intelligence don’t go together.
For one cannabis farm they find there are presumably a hundred they don’t – they hardly scratch the surface. I’d rather they ignored cannabis farms and focused on criminalities that they now totally ignore and couldn’t care less about.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 