A COMPUTER shop suffered up to £12,000 of damage after its premises were flooded due to a cannabis farm in the flat above.

Chris Loader, of Premier Computers, arrived at the shop in Earls Hall Parade, off Cuckoo Corner, Southend, to find water pouring through the ceiling and pooling on the floor below.

He desperately tried to get in touch with the tenant in the flat above but as he was unable to, he decided to contact the fire brigade.

They climed into the flat through an open window and discovered a large cannabis factory in the attic.

Mr Loader, 43, said: “I came in at about 8.30am to open at 9am and had a confused few seconds wondering why all this stuff was on the floor.

“I was standing in water which was pouring through the ceiling like rain.

“A window in the flat above was open, so the fire brigade climbed in.

“It turned out a water tank had burst, so they got a ladder up to the loft and found this cannabis farm in there.

“It covered the entire area of our shop, which is two units, and was all done quite professionally with air conditioning, fans and everything else but, because of the amount of water, the police couldn’t take everything out until Sunday morning.

“We had only finished renovating the shop a month ago with purpose-built units we made ourselves, and only last week thought we’d got it howwewanted it to be, then this happens and we’ve got half our ceiling missing.

But we’ve got insurance, and you have to move on.”

Police were called to the flat by the fire service at 10.20am on Saturday. A spokesman added: “Officers attended and found about 50 plants at the address.

Inquiries are continuing.”