Hippy ran cannabis factory yards from families in a Lincoln street
The £8k operation was run from the garage on Birchwood Avenue
The £8k operation was run from the garage on Birchwood Avenue
Home-owners have been left stunned after a drugs factory was uncovered on a quiet residential street in Lincoln.
Officers swooped on Birchwood Avenue to seize £8,000 worth of cannabis and dozens of plants.
The man who ran the operation, Gregory Hippy, is now awaiting sentence – but could face up to 14 years in prison.
Magistrates were this week told that the well-oiled operation was conducted in a garage – just yards from homes with families in them.
Lincoln Magistrates’ Court heard that drug experts say the garage had clearly been converted for the sole purpose of cannabis growth.
Bricks had been removed from the garage wall, ventilation pipes had been installed and there were white plastic sheets on the walls.
Hippy’s lawyer Tony Freitas insisted the equipment found in the home was already there when he moved in.
And he said that the enterprise had merely begun as a small-scale purchase online that had spiralled unexpectedly out of control.
Last night, stunned residents told the Echo they could not believe what was happening on their street.
Mother of three Sarah Curtis said she was speechless.
“We walk past there every day to the corner of the shops and had no idea someone was doing such a thing,” she said. “I’m seriously shocked.”
Susan Loft, who has only just moved to the area, said she never suspected anything.
“It is not very nice at all,” she said. “It just shows you never know what is going on.”
Another local, who asked to remain anonymous, said he had moved to the street to “get away from crime” and was “angry” to hear of this happening on his doorstep.
Officers raided the home of Hippy, 36, on May 24, finding 28 cannabis plants in his garage.
Hippy appeared at court on Tuesday and admitted producing a class B drug.
He was granted unconditional bail for sentencing at Lincoln Crown Court at a later date.
Shirley Wilson, prosecuting, said: “The drug experts said there was a strong commercial element to this grow.”
Mr Freitas, defending, told the court that Hippy had grown the cannabis for his own use.
He said: “He says he bought the seeds on the internet. To his shock, they kept on seeding so he kept on going with it.
“He says all the equipment was at the address from the previous tenant.
“He says he was simply doing it because it was cheaper than buying it.”
Hippy denied selling the cannabis for profit.
In another major drugs seizure in the county, a large cannabis factory has been discovered in a former furniture warehouse on an industrial estate in Gainsborough.
Lincolnshire Police officers raided the derelict former YP Furniture premises in Longwood Road – and found cannabis plants being grown in large quantities.
Now they are trying to trace the criminals responsible for running the illegal enterprise in the unit, which has been empty for more than three years.
There have so far been no arrests.
“Officers have been at the scene carrying out forensic work and dismantling and seizing the equipment used for growing the plants, as well as the plants themselves.
Paul Corner, the plant foreman at next-door business building block manufacturers Interfuse Ltd, revealed that his firm’s security system played a role in unveiling the cannabis factory.
“We’ve been broken into twice in the last six weeks and our alarms go straight through to the police station,” Mr Corner said.
“And when the police turned up on the second visit they found footprints behind both factories – and the cable powering up the cannabis production.”
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Soft Secrets
