Climbing ‘Higher’ Than Ever to Pocket Some Cash!

Abandoned bingo halls have long been the target of illegal activity, usually the drug growing kind, but it is unusual for the same venue to hit the headlines three times. After closing in 2018, the former Gala Bingo hall in Kettering, England became a popular destination among those seeking to make money from drugs.

What Happened?

In 2019, the world was offered a glimpse into the building when it was shown images of 2,000 cannabis plants with a potential street value of £2.8m. The bingo hall has featured on a Christmas Card, one designed by a local shop under the title “Ganja Bingo.” Strangely enough, just four months prior to this, another drug farm set itself up in the building before being discovered by a group of urban explorers. A huge investigation got underway but shut down in 2019 due to a lack of evidence.

More recently, a burglar attempted to cash in on a full house of scrap metal after entering the building through a window. Rummaging around the huge building, Roy Nichols, a 45-year-old from the local area, soon received a knock on the door from the police but denied all charges! Last week at Northampton Magistrates Court, Nichols had a change of heart and decided to plead guilty to the offence, where he received a community order for his burglary.

Living literally a stone’s throw away from the bingo site, he entered the building in broad daylight at 7:30pm on March 31st, 2020. In total, nine bars of scrap metal with an unknown value were stolen and for his actions, he must now complete 40-hours of unpaid work and attend rehabilitation services for treatment for his drug dependency.

Strange but True:

Why are bingo halls targeted for such activities? Mainly due to their size and the fact nobody is going to turn up for a game of bingo while the gang are watering the plants! In similar instances, two men were arrested in Mexborough, South Yorkshire last year when £2.18m worth of cannabis was discovered in an empty Empire Bingo hall.

In 2015, slightly stranger news came to light when an investigation revealed…

…bingo halls to be awash with cocaine, and not abandoned ones either! The Sun media outlet visited 17 high street bingo halls in the UK and found all but one of the swabs had tested positive for cocaine! The last one wasn’t clean, but instead tested positive for crack cocaine! The headlines read: “Halls of shame: Bingo venues awash with COCAINE as growing number of OAPs take drugs,”, but is it really the older generation? My local bingo is visited by far more younger people than the purple-rinsed brigade and for that reason alone, I would be far more inclined to point the finger at the over 20’s under 40’s age group! 

Source: “Unlucky for Some: Kettering Bingo Hall Burglar Caught After Stealing Scrap Metal”. Northamptonshire Telegraph. October 12, 2021.

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