A TIP-OFF helped police close down a cannabis farm in Accrington.

Officers discovered around 50 mature cannabis plants and a ‘huge’ bag of dried ‘bush’ at an empty house in Stevenson Street East yesterday morning.

Mature plants and cultivated leaves were found in three rooms of the property.

The house had been staged to look like someone was living there, but it was obvious the house had not been lived in.

Springhill Community Beat Manager, PC Shazia Bibi, led the investigation.

She said: “We found two rooms full of plants and one room was being used to cultivate the drug.

“It’s hard to put a figure on the total of this find but it is very substantial and easily more than £20,000.”

The grower, had bypassed the electricity supply to run his lamps and transformers from the mains.

As well as the plants, police confiscated transformers, lights and fans.

PC Bibi said: “The house had clearly been staged to look like someone was living there. There were children’s toys on the table in the lounge for example.

But a deeper search proved no one had been living there.

“We think someone has been visiting daily to water the plants and to open the windows.

“Our investigation will now focus on who had access to the house.”

Anyone with information should call police on 101.