POLICE investigating a burglary discovered more than £8,500 worth of drugs and £4,200 in cash when they "followed their noses" after smelling cannabis from the house next door, a jury heard.
The officers had been called to a break-in at a house in Bramley Road, Broxtowe Estate, and were having a look around the area when they got a whiff of the drug.
When they checked at a neighbouring property, the door was open but no one was home, Nottingham Crown Court was told yesterday.
Inside, officers found flowering heads of cannabis in a cardboard box on the kitchen table.
They also discovered 1.2 kilograms of frozen amphetamine in four bags in a freezer and £4,200 in cash in a plastic bag in a kitchen drawer.
The cannabis weighed 440 grams and was worth £2,500, while the amphetamine had a potential wholesale price of £6,000.
The registered tenant at the house, Stephen Bostock, 54, of Cranwell Road, Strelley, went on trial yesterday in connection with the haul.
Prosecutor Jonathan Eley said: "They [the officers] smelt something. They smelled cannabis and so they followed their noses, as it were, to see where this was coming from."
Bostock denies possessing cannabis with intent to supply, producing cannabis and possessing amphetamine with intent to supply in Bramley Road on July 12 last year.
He also denies possessing criminal property, in the form of the cash.
Mr Eley said it was not an uninhabited house.
He referred to photographs taken of a bathroom with toothpaste, toothbrushes and soap, a living room, with furniture and a television.
He mentioned a bed, with a duvet and sheets tossed aside and "clearly in use".
Mr Eley said more photographs came from a motion-detection camera, which Bostock allegedly had installed overlooking a door and gate to his back yard.
Images recovered from a secure digital card showed the defendant and others in the yard on July 8.
The prosecution say someone was using the property to distribute drugs.
Bostock was arrested and interviewed.
He answered "no comment" to every question put to him, said Mr Eley.
In his latest interview, he prepared a written statement saying he was not living there and that he was staying at his daughter's because of health problems.
He claimed another person was living there and that he had no knowledge of what was in the house.
The trial heard from investigating officer Detective Constable Stuart Satterley yesterday.
He told the court that the defendant had been a council tenant at the property since 2004 after his father died.
The case continues
