A WOMAN is having to find a new home today after police applied for permission to close an Ipswich crackhouse.Officers applied for the closure after residents complained for around a year about the comings and goings in the flat.

A WOMAN is having to find a new home today after police applied for permission to close an Ipswich crackhouse.

Officers applied for the closure after residents complained for around a year about the comings and goings in the flat.

Teresa Dale was given hours to pack and leave her housing association home in Downside close, Ipswich, before the ban came into force.

Neighbours had reported numerous visitors coming and going from the 38-year-old's ground floor flat.

In one incident a resident said he had witnessed a man performing a lewd sex act on her in a communal corridor when he was trying to go home.

Officers raided the property in Downside Close on May 24 this year as part of Operation Academy - a major initiative targeting pushers infiltrating the town from London and other areas.

Ian Seeley, from the Suffolk Constabulary, successfully applied to South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court for the closure of the property on Friday after reporting incidents had not stopped following the raid.

Pc James Hurden, of Ipswich police, said: “The tenant was not at home when we executed the warrant on May 24 this year. Instead a man, Abdul Ahmed, was asleep on the sofa and she later admitted he was allowed to stay in exchange for two wraps of crack cocaine every day.”

At the time the search was carried out 12 wraps of crack cocaine, seven wraps of heroin and £1,000 in cash were found at the property.

Mr Hurden added: “We visited residents twice since the warrant was executed. Residents complained people visited at all times of the day and night, music was played very loud at all times and people knocked on their doors to ask for tin foil.

“There were also smells of drugs coming from the flat.”

Mandy Dales, housing officer for Sanctuary Housing, said: “Since August 2004 I have been responsible for the tenancy of Teresa Dale's flat.

“We have received numerous complaints about her which have gone back for about a year.

“We asked her to sign an Acceptable Behaviour Contract which stated she would not do anything which was likely to cause other residents distress. She voluntarily signed it but it was just days before the search warrant was carried out.”

Dale did not attend court for the hearing and was not legally represented.

Magistrates took just minutes to agree to the three-month closure order which was carried out at 3pm on Friday.

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