Man's distress after huge cannabis farm discovered at Bradford property

Gurdeep Chahal, 43, was horrified when he made the discovery at the gated house on Bierley Lane earlier this month.

He said he has also been left with a huge bill to bring the house back up to standard after thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused. 

The situation has been made all the more upsetting as the self-built property was the family home prior to being rented, but those memories have now been tainted. 

“I’ve got a house that’s wrecked, all the memories,” he said.

“My wife hasn’t slept properly since that day. My mum nearly had a heart attack when she saw it, because her memories are here, we’ve been here 20-odd years.”

“I can’t even explain how I feel.”

Mr Chahal, who is originally from Bradford, but now lives in Wakefield with his wife Pawandip and their three children, became suspicious after repeated issues with rent payments. 

Deciding enough was enough, he turned up at the property on July 2, only to make the shocking discovery. 

Some of the plants which were discovered

He said: “I knocked on the door, I tried my keys, nothing. I walked around, I went around the back and all these blinds were shut.

“They’d put blinds on the kitchen windows as well, we’d never had blinds in the kitchen.”

Becoming increasingly concerned, he said it was a “complete mess” and it appeared the electricity had been by-passed.

He managed to open the shutters into the garage and said: “I see this big pipe blowing out the fumes or whatever you want to call it.

“I walked through into my games room and I see it. All this plastic everywhere, plants, all these lights, it’s just a full-on farm. 

Some of the materials found

“I thought, I don’t want to contaminate the evidence, I walked outside and rang 999.”
He said he was then approached by a neighbour who told him he had seen two people run from the property. 

Mr Chahal said eight rooms in the house were full of plants and estimates it would have been worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, with around £20-25,000 worth of damage caused to the property. On top of that, he has been left feeling distressed at facing suspicion himself due to the police activity at the house as officers dismantled the farm. 

“We’re well known within the community, everybody knows our family, everybody knows who we are, but when I left the scene when police came, all people saw was police at the house,” he said.

“It’s just horrible, the effect it’s had on my family.”

In a recent update to Mr Chahal, West Yorkshire Police said the investigation is still ongoing and forensic examinations are in the process of being carried out as part of that.

A spokesperson for the force said no arrests have yet been made and that enquiries remain ongoing.