LANDLORDS were today warned to be more aware of who was renting their properties after yet another cannabis factory was uncovered in Southampton.

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Daily Echo, a team of detectives from the city's drug investigation unit raided a house where they discovered the makeshift farm.

Today officers revealed a total of 274 plants had been found at the house in Padwell Road, in the Inner Avenue area of Southampton, following the raid at around 8am yesterday.

If they were harvested and taken for sale on the streets they could potentially be worth more than £20,000.

Four rooms inside the three-bedroom home had been converted into areas to grow and cultivate the drug.

Hi-tech intensive heating and lighting equipment had been installed to speed up the growth of the plants, which were being grown using hydroponics.

It is thought the electricity supply had been dangerously bypassed and electricity board officials were asked to come and check the property was safe before disconnecting the supply.

It's the 49th such cannabis farm to be found in the city and it is believed the area is being targeted because it has an affluent rental market because there are two universities.

It has left Southampton dubbed the cannabis capital of the south because of the high number of cases in the past 18 months.

Detective Inspector Dave Morgan said: "We have gone in clearly at the right time at this property.

"The plants were very mature and all of them were near the point of being harvested.

"It's disappointing that our previous warnings for landlords to be on their guard and to be a little more aware of who was renting their properties has not been taken on board.

"We have to consider on each occasion where we uncover what we refer to as a cannabis farm, whether the landlord of that property is in fact knowledgeable of the criminal enterprise going on inside.

"If we do discover that to be the case then obviously they will be dealt with accordingly."

Det Insp Morgan said there was no suggestion that the landlord of the address knew anything about what had happened inside the house but wanted other landlords to be aware of what is repeatedly happening in the city.

A 33-year-old man found inside the property was arrested. He was being questioned at a police station in Hampshire on suspicion of being concerned in the production of cannabis.