Dawn raid police target woman, 80

Cleveland Police sent a bunch of flowers to apologise

Police have apologised to a great-grandmother after her house was wrongly targeted as a crack den.

Betty Keen, 80, was woken by officers breaking down the door of her Middlesbrough home during the dawn raid on Wednesday.

The force was carrying out a major operation aimed at disrupting the crack cocaine network.

Mrs Keen has since received some flowers, a personal apology, and her door has been repaired.

Her daughter, Margaret Keen, who lives in the town's Wicklow Street, said the family accepted the apology, but the incident should never have happened in the first place.

'Very traumatic'

She said: "They say the raids were the result of a year-long operation so they've had plenty of time to find out there were no drug dealers... at my mam's house.

"It was very traumatic and the whole family is upset and angry that it was allowed to happen.

"We will be lodging an official complaint about what happened and where this so-called intelligence came from."

A spokesman for Cleveland Police said: "We want to sincerely apologise to Mrs Keen for the disturbance.

"An officer has been round to see the family with flowers and to say sorry and we had the door repaired as quickly as we could.

"We accept the residents at the address have nothing to do with criminal activity."