Wrong homes raided in hunt for dance drug

After the officers left, Lorraine Cornier, 49, from Scarborough, had to contact North Yorkshire Police to tell them the search team had left their door-forcing tool behind.

Yesterday the force apologised for the mix-up which involved a specialist search team based in Stokesley operating in Scarborough.

Mrs Cornier, 49, was dozing in her home in Lingholme Crescent, Eastfield, when she heard voices, bumps, and bangs.

She said: "I thought I was dreaming but I got up and looked down the stairs. Then someone shouted, 'Who's in the house. It's the police.'

"I said hello and he replied, 'It's the police. stay where you are.'" She says a policeman then came running up the stairs wearing a stab-proof vest and holding a baton.

"He sounded really out of breath. I later realised that was because they had just smashed my back door in."

When she asked what he was doing, he said he had a warrant to search the premises for cannabis and mephedrone.

The former legal high was recently outlawed after it was linked to a number of deaths, including Nicholas Smith, 19, and Louis Wainwright, 18, from Winterton, near Scunthorpe, and Lois Waters, 24, from Norton, Malton.

"I told him I did not have any drugs. They asked me who was in the house and I said it was just me and my four dogs," added Mrs Cornier.

While the upstairs rooms were searched, she put on her dressing gown and went downstairs where she found another half a dozen officers in the house and a crowd of her neighbours gathered outside.

"I asked the police if they'd like a cup of tea. Then I rolled myself a cigarette and asked if they wanted to check what I had in my tobacco tin," she said.

It later transpired that Mrs Cornier, who had lived in the property for 15 years, had received a letter from the Crown Prosecution Service the previous week addressed to someone she had never heard of whose name was also on the search warrant.

She had written "not known at this address" on it and was going to put it back in the post.

Police asked her if she had received any more mail for to the suspect and she told them she had not.

When the search party left after 20 minutes they left the door forcer behind. She contacted police and an officer returned to collect it.

The second incident took place the same day in Lilac Walk, Northstead, Scarborough. Police were again executing a drugs warrant. But the suspect had moved out months before and the new occupant was renovating the property.

Yesterday a North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "The warrant executed at a property in Lingholme Crescent on Sunday 18 April, was issued and executed lawfully.

"However, it is now accepted that the targeted individual does not live at that address and an investigation is under way to establish how his name became connected with that address.

"We appreciate that the experience will have been unwelcome and alarming for the householder and officers have contacted her to apologise for any inconvenience or distress caused. The warrant executed at Lilac Walk on 18 April was issued and executed lawfully at the correct address, based on intelligence verified by an external agency two days prior.

"It is now understood that the targeted individual vacated the property a number of months previously despite his address being verified prior to the warrant being issued."

Owners were advised to make claims for compensation in writing for consideration.