A mum has received an apology from police after officers swooped on her Bradford home, wrongly suspecting she had turned her garage into a cannabis farm.

The officers, who had obtained a search warrant, went away empty-handed after finding nothing more sinister than an electric heater to keep Pam Hardcastle’s two pet guinea pigs warm.

The raid was mounted after the West Yorkshire Police helicopter detected a hotspot, caused by the heater, on the roof of the garage in Huddersfield Road, Odsal. It is often a tell-tale sign of specialist heating systems designed to grow cannabis.

Mrs Hardcastle, 42, who is a learning mentor for under-achieving seven and eight-year-olds at a Bradford Moor primary school, was at work when she received a call from her mother, who put a police officer on the phone.

“The officer said they wanted me to go home,” said Mrs Hardcastle. “He said my garage lit up when the police helicopter was out and they believed I could be growing cannabis. He said they had a warrant and they wanted to search my premises.

“It was unbelievable. My mum told them I had guinea pigs in the garage and would have a heater in there to keep them warm.

“But they cut a bolt off my neighbour’s gate to gain entry.”

  • Read more on this story in Tuesday's Telegraph & Argus