A GARDENER and self-confessed “hippy” had the shock of his life on Wednesday when he was confronted by armed police officers after neighbours mistook a firework blast for a gunshot.

Elliott Lennox, 30, who owns landscaping company ELS Site Services, let off the scarer - a small banger-style firework - outside his home in Durford Edge at around 9pm.

He went back indoors with his four dogs and around 45 minutes later was laying in bed watching television when he heard doors rattling and a helicopter overhead.

Elliot went outdoors to investigate and to his shock was met by Sussex Police firearms officers who immediately shouted at him to get on the ground.

The shocked gardener said: “I let off one little firework I had rattling around in my van, in line with my company’s safety policy, and went inside to watch a movie.

“I was just laying down in bed minding my own business when the next thing I knew there’s a helicopter hovering over the house and the dogs started stirring.

“I thought ’what’s going on?’ and walked outside. That’s when it all went off - spotlights, loud hailers, armed police, dogs, everything!

“All the doors had been kicked in and my driveway was full of police officers. There must have been seven or eight cops there pointing guns at me with little red dots on my chest. I couldn’t believe it.”

Elliott said the officers shouted at him to get down on the floor and then to walk toward a flashing torch before forcing him down onto his knees and handcuffing him.

He continued: “They searched the house from top to bottom but didn’t find anything other than about a gram of cannabis and admitted it must have been a hoax.

“They apparently received a call from somebody in the area saying there had been a mass brawl and argument, a shot had been fired, and a car had sped off out of the driveway.

“But I hadn’t long been in from work and it was just me and my four dogs, so I didn’t have anyone around to argue with.”

The officers arrested Elliot for possession of a Class B drug and took him to Chichester police station in West Sussex where he was strip searched, given a warning and released without charge at around 1am on Thursday.

“Sussex Police dragged me through this whole process for a result that’s frankly ludicrous,” he said.

“The cost to the tax payer of what happened last night must be thousands, all for the sake of a little banger. It’s absolute madness and was almost like a drug raid for a tenner’s worth of cannabis.

“When I got to the police station, the sergeant said to the two constables who arrested me ‘why didn’t you do a Police National Computer check at the scene?’, because then they could have dealt with the cannabis at the house.

“But, of course, they were just saving face in front of all the rich neighbours who wanted to see someone being taken away in a police car.”

Elliott added he’s had a few run-ins with neighbours in Durford Wood since moving into the bungalow as a house-sitter eight months ago and feels he has been “singled out” because of opposition to the landowner’s development ambitions.

He said: “I feel like I’ve been persecuted. I’m a bit of a hippy really. I live off the land and carve things out of bits of wood with my chainsaw and make a buck where I can. Durford Wood is like millionaire’s row and it feels like if you haven’t got half-a-million quid in your back pocket you don’t fit in.

“The owner of my house wants to demolish it and build a bigger house in its place but the neighbours are all up in arms because they don’t want somebody to build a house as big as theirs and I’m suffering for it.”

A spokesman for Sussex Police said: “Shortly before 9pm on Wednesday, police were called to a report of a gun shot in Durford Wood, near Petersfield.

“Firearms officers attended an address and detained a man, who stated he had let off bird scarers. Following a search of the property, bird scarers and a quantity of cannabis were discovered.

“The cannabis was seized and the 30-year-old was issued with a warning for possession.”