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Embarrassed police have issued an apology to a mother after officers swooped on her house thinking she had turned it into a cannabis factory - and found an electric heater for her two guinea pigs 'Simon' and 'Kenny'.

Six officers, in three vehicles, rushed to Pam Hardcastle's home and the 42-year-old was shocked to receive a call from her mother telling her the police were asking her to return from work.

The officers had been alerted when a police helicopter picked up a hotspot on the roof of Pam's garage and assumed it was a drug den, when in fact it was a cosy home for her loveable pets.

Pam, a primary school learning mentor, was forced to return home to Bradford after officers from West Yorkshire Police obtained a search warrant believing they had uncovered a specialist heating system designed to grow cannabis.

She said: 'The officer said they wanted me to go home. He said my garage lit up when the police helicopter was out and they believed I could be growing cannabis.

'He said they had a warrant and they wanted to search my premises.

'It was unbelievable. My mum told them I had guinea pigs in the garage and would have a heater in there to keep them warm. But they cut a bolt off my neighbour's gate to gain entry.

'My neighbours told me police were everywhere. Everybody was asking what I had done wrong. It is embarrassing.'

Simon and Kenny belong to Pam's ten-year-old son Jack. They have lived in her garage for three months and she had put the heater inside because she was concerned they would get cold.