Tenant with cannabis farm is kicked out

A CANNABIS-grower has been evicted from his East Lothian Council house for breaching his tenancy agreement.

Kevin Rodger was removed from Lindores Drive, in Tranent, on Tuesday after a court order was obtained from Haddington Sheriff Court last month.

Granting the eviction order, Sheriff Peter Braid said Rodger had twice committed a serious offence in the property and that the council was entitled to push for eviction.

He said: “While no antisocial behaviour was committed in the present case, in the sense that no neighbour was directly affected by the defender’s cultivation of cannabis, the pursuer’s [council’s] policy of cracking down on drug use by tenants, and seeking to eradicate the drugs problem within the locality so far as within its power, would lose credibility if it turned a blind eye to the cultivation of cannabis, certainly on the scale carried on by the defender.”

Councillor Willie Innes, housing spokesman for the local authority, said: “I am pleased that the sheriff has granted this order. We cannot tolerate illegal drug activities.”