HOME OF SPECIAL CONSTABLE RAIDED WHEN COLLEAGUES MISTAKENLY THOUGHT
SHE WAS GROWING CANNABIS

When the police helicopter's infra-red camera detected something
unusual, officers were quick to act.

The building was 'bright' - sometimes an indication that warm lamps
are being used to help cultivate a drug crop.

Scanning the monitor an officer said: 'There's a house that's doing a
glow in the dark - I'm thinking it might be cannabis related.'

Two colleagues were duly dispatched to the property - only to find
it was the home of police community support officer Zally Huseyin.

The glow had been caused by poor roof insulation and not, as they had
suspected, the powerful lights typically used in drug factories.

Mrs Huseyin, 46, has told how she was horrified when the officers,
who recognised her from work, arrived to search her UKP400,000
detached home in Cambourne, Cambridgeshire.

'When I saw the squad car I thought it was colleagues just popping in
for a cup of tea,' the mother of five said. 'They said if I hadn't
been in they'd have to have broken the door down.'

Police use helicopter heat monitoring to spot houses where cannabis
is grown indoors under light that generates a bright white trace on
infra-red cameras.

The officers showed her the helicopter DVD that had aroused their
suspicions. But a search of the four-year-old house only found shoddy
insulation.

Mrs Huseyin, who has been a PCSO, otherwise known as a Blunkett's
bobby, since March 2007, said: 'I'm so embarrassed.'

A Cambridgeshire Police spokesman confirmed the heat source was
traced to poor loft insulation.

Mrs Huseyin and her husband Steve, a 46-year-old garage owner, have
lived in the five-bedroom house for less than 18 months. The incident
has fuelled their anger about what they claim is the house's poor design.

'These houses are meant to be environmentally and economically
friendly but last year's gas bill was UKP1,000. I feel I've been
ripped off,' she added.

David Bell, managing director of builders David Wilson Homes South
Midlands, said he had been contacted by Mrs Huseyin regarding
concerns over energy efficiency.

After conducting additional investigations the firm 'found the home
complies with all the relevant standards'.