POLICE who were called to fly tipping in a village near Devizes were expecting to find builders rubble or maybe a mattress or two but instead they discovered what looked like the hastily dumped crop of a drug factory.

Officers were called to Broadway, Market Lavington on Saturday and were so surprised by their find of 27 cannabis plants that one took to social media to post a rather jokey message in a bid to find the culprits.

It said: "Has anyone noticed their greenhouse or conservatory a little less leafy over the past week? If you are missing some plants, approximately 27, so quite a few, we’d love to hear from you.

"We won’t be able to reunite you but nonetheless I’m sure we could discuss the ins and outs of fly tipping and well, cultivating a class B drug.”

The post went on say that earlier in the week police were notified about the fly-tipping. A police spokesman said: "Police were very surprised to find the strongly smelling cannabis plants which had been dumped for reasons unknown."

Anyone with information is asked to ring 101 and quote reference number: 13861.