BURGLARS broke into a Burnley house only to discover it was being used as a £400,000 skunk cannabis farm.

Neighbours had called police after hearing a disturbance at the six-bedroomed home, in Palatine Square, in the Piccadilly area of the town.

An estimated 500 plants were recovered from the rented house, along with lighting units, netting and freestanding fans by officers.

The next day, while police were still in the area, a drug addict also broke in on the lookout for any leftover cannabis which had not been cleared by officers.

Wayne Noone, 31, of nearby Green Street, was found leaving the Palatine Square house by police on Friday afternoon.

Landlord Ikram Haq said he had been horrified to discover he been ‘duped’ by his tenants when he rented out the sprawling family home in January.

Helped by his family, he was faced with the task of removing the remnants of the drugs farm over the weekend.

Dozens of harvested cannabis plant stems were discovered in the cellar, he said, and every room in the house had been converted to grow cannabis, except for a small box room.

He said: “I’ve been renting out houses for 15 or 16 years and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“The house had been empty for some time so I put it online and some people moved in last January. The smell in there is just terrible.”

Mr Haq said that hundreds of pounds worth of damage had been caused to the structure of the property as makeshift ventilation shafts were created for the operation.

Neighbours described how they had been awoken during the early hours on Thursday when police arrived during the first break-in.

One neighbour said: “People were climbing over garden walls trying to get away.”

Noone, who appeared before town magistrates on Saturday, admitted burglary with intent to steal for the second incident.

Prosecutor Stephen Parker said an officer noticed movements inside the house and alerted colleagues. Noone was arrested coming out of the back door with a screwdriver.

Interviewed by police later he said he was aware that the property had been searched by police and a skunk cannabis factory had been discovered.

He said he had broken in to see whether any cannabis plants had been left, or any equipment had been abandoned, which he could use to start his own concern.

David Lawson, defending, said his client, in his state of mind, would not have had the wherewithal to now what to do with a hydroponics system, but he accepted he had been looking for cannabis when caught.

He was given a six-month community order with a drugs rehabiliation requirement.

* Two Vietnamese men have been charged with cultivating cannabis over the Palatine Square find and are set to appear before Burnley magistrates.

Four Burnley men have been bailed on suspicion of burglary at the house.