Neighbourhood officers grew suspicious about a disused former engineering works in Town Street, Stanningley, after a strong smell of cannabis and what looked like a brand-new ventilation chimney on the roof.[1] PC Chris Davey forced entry to find a dusty workshop strewn with rubble, where the chimney had been bricked up and ran straight down into the floor and the floor felt warm despite no heating.[1] With no obvious cellar access, officers heard a large metal box move and saw a man emerge from a hole in the floor in a flood of light and cannabis smell, then disappear back down; they followed him through a disguised trapdoor down a ladder.[1]
Below was a four-room cellar filled with cannabis plants under powerful lamps.[1][2] Robert Dibb and Wayne Ivory were found bare-chested inside from the heat and arrested on suspicion of producing cannabis.[1] Officers found more than 600 plants plus a bin bag of harvested buds, described as worth more than 500,000 pounds.[1][2]
The pair were charged with producing more than 20 kilograms of cannabis and found guilty after a trial at Leeds Crown Court.[1][2] Ivory, 42, of Hillside View, Stanningley, was sentenced to five years and Dibb, 52, of Lakeside Chase, Rawdon, to three years.[1][2] Inspector Simon Jessup of the Armley, Bramley and Stanningley policing team called it a highly sophisticated concealment that PC Davey’s suspicions had undone.[1]
