Police find P lab in shed during home check

Photo / Sarah Ivey

A family forced from their house by the Christchurch earthquake moved into their shed - where a man was caught mixing chemicals to make P.

Police and Army personnel discovered the 33-year-old at 10am yesterday while they were moving through properties checking on the welfare of people living in houses off Avonside Drive, Dallington, many of which were left shattered by last week's big earthquake.

"Police staff went around to the back of a property in Avonside Drive and came across a 33-year-old man who appeared to be mixing chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine," said Christchurch CIB Detective Senior Sergeant Brian Archer.

He said the house in front of the shed looked badly damaged.

"I'm not a structural engineer but I'd say it was pretty destroyed."

He told the Herald it looked as though the occupants had moved into the shed.

Police were last night trying to establish the arrested man's link to the property.

"We're not sure if he's an occupier or a visitor. We're not sure how he fits in."

Asked to comment on the danger faced by people living so close to the mixture of dangerous chemicals, Mr Archer said it was still common to find people living alongside the manufacture of methamphetamine.

"Unfortunately for these people life continues [after the earthquake]."

Police aren't sure at what stage of the drug-making process the man had been interrupted or if the shed was a whole clan lab. The property has been sealed off while it is examined by ESR forensic staff.

A 33-year-old man will appear in the Christchurch District Court today charged with possession of materials capable of being used to manufacture methamphetamine.

Meanwhile, Inspector John Price said calls to police were starting to return to normal levels.

He promised a "zero tolerance to any offending relating to the Canterbury earthquake".

"It is intolerable that people would seek to profit from other's misfortunes," he said.

Early figures showed a slight reported increase in the number of burglaries in suburbs affected by the earthquake.

But he said: "There is a general scattering of burglary incidents around the city with no real defined trend specific to the areas affected by the Canterbury earthquake."

If people had to leave their homes they were advised to take the same precautions to secure their property that they would if they were going for an extended break.