South Wales Police: Organised Crime Unit, Barry Police Station

On attendance by Officer’s from the South Wales Police Authority, this significant three storey commercial (ex-Funeral Home) property was found to have had recent electrical installation works undertaken. Three individuals were found at the property and were detained by the Police for interview.

The nature of the recent electrical works consisted of 3No new consumer units, 12No plywood boards, located around the property, containing either 6No or 8No double socket outlets. It was noted that the electrical connections into the supply authority’s facility by-passed the required meter connections, and the routing of the supply cables to the power boards was effectively clipped direct to walls, through doorways, effectively being screwed into any handy timber architraves (often in doorways thus preventing the doors operation).

I was instructed to offer expert opinion relating to the nature of the [new] electrical installation work at the above property; to determine whether this type of work is typical of domestic (dwellings), commercial or other installations which I have seen, including the number and arrangement/layout of socket outlets, consumer units and other wiring and equipment.

In my experience, the typical modus operandi for setting up a cannabis grow/farm, is established by connecting the electrical systems for the grow directly onto the incoming live/energised cable which by-passes the consumers meter (i.e. no monitoring of electrical usage); although this negates the required protection from electric shock and/or protection against fire from the installations/consumers protective device(s) i.e. fuses/circuit breakers.

This situation was extremely dangerous, illegal and I concluded that it was my opinion that this installation had been installed with the sole purpose of facilitating a cannabis grow.

Client comment:

“Mr Kelly assisted South Wales Police in an investigation into a large cannabis factory which was in the process of being constructed in a dis-used property. Mr Kelly examined video footage and photographs of the scene along with the measurements and descriptions from the Crime Scene Investigators and the accounts provided by the defendants who claimed to be carrying out legitimate electrical work.

Mr Kelly provided a detailed report commenting on all aspects of the electrical set up and gave opinion that the set up was not legitimate for several reasons which he outlined, not just in his technical report, but also in a summary which would leave a Jury capable of understanding his opinion and the rationale for reaching it.

The defence contacted their own electrical expert to attend the scene, who had been provided with Mr Kelly’s report, however, the defence expert was unable to raise any evidential points to oppose Mr Kelly’s opinion.

Despite the absence of cannabis at the scene, the defendants entered guilty pleas to the production of cannabis on the strength of the evidence against them”.