WORKERS at a charity depot in Huddersfield discovered a donation they couldn’t turn into cash.

Staff at Oxfam’s Wastesaver centre opened a black bin bag – and found a haul of cannabis.

Police have now taken custody of the drugs, which they say had a street value of several thousands of pounds.

Ms Lorraine Needham-Brinley, production manager at the national depot in Beck Road, told the Examiner how staff were shocked at the find.

“Staff were suspicious because of a very pungent smell and when they opened this bag they found a big stash of cannabis wrapped in a large bath sheet,” she said.

“What was surprising was that it was so fresh it must only have been picked off the plant that morning.”

The depot sorts waste clothing donated to all Oxfam shops across the country and the drugs could have come from anywhere.

“We have no idea where the cannabis has come from and the police said while it wasn’t the best quality it was still worth thousands,” said Ms Needham-Brinley.

Staff put the haul in Ms Needham-Brinley’s office until police arrived but the smell left her reeling.

“I had just left it on a towel in the corner but it gave me such a bad headache I had to seal it up,” she said.

“The volunteers at the shop who received it probably smelled it and just decided to send it straight on to us without opening it.”

The depot sorts around 90 tonnes of clothing a week for distribution to overseas markets, online shops or festivals.

Oxfam’s most unusual donation so far was a rotting joint of pork which had been deposited in a textile bank.

The donation included a note which said the meat, left over from Christmas, was for the starving in Africa.

Ms Needham-Brinley said quite often they received calls from people who had posted the wrong bag or their mobile phone into recycling bins by mistake.

The charity’s original warehouse, next door to the current depot, was gutted by a mystery blaze last April.

The site has now been flattened but the cause of the fire has never been determined.

The charity has now improved its automated sorting systems and is looking for new premises.

A police spokesman said the drugs had been seized and destroyed.

Police were called to a flat in Birkby after 50 mature cannabis plants were found.

Officers from Huddersfield North Neighbourhood Policing Team were alerted by the landlord and discovered the drugs during a routine check on the one-bed property in Bradcroft Road at around 3pm yesterday.

The drugs would have been valued at about £5,000.

Neighbourhood Inspector Mohammed Rauf said inquiries were ongoing and no-one had been arrested.

He said initial checks suggested all 50 had been confirmed as mature cannabis plants.