BUNGLING DRUG COPS RAID GRAN; Special constable's widow in tears as door is smashed open.

Byline: Robert Fairburn; Reg McKay

DRUGS squad cops battered down a greatgranny's front door ... despite being warned by a neighbour they had the wrong house.

Margaret Hogarth, whose late husband was a special constable, said she almost had a heart attack when half a dozen officers came crashing into her home in the earlymorning raid.

They had ordered her to open the door but before the partially-sighted 75-year-old, dressed only in a night gown, could find her keys, they smashed it open.

Mrs Hogarth said: "The door flew in and the picture fell off the wall. There was an awful mess and my dog was upset.

"I started to cry. It was a nightmare."

Once inside the one bed-roomflatintheBorderstownoPeebles, the bungling cops realised it was not the home of a suspected drug dealer.

Mrs Hogarth added: "They said my house came up on their computer. My husband would have turned in his grave.

"My neighbour saw them and told them an old woman lived in there with her wee dog.

"But they told her not to talk to them and get back inside."

Yesterday, Mrs Hogarth was still waiting for her door to be fixed, six days after the raid.

And she had not received an official apology, although Lothian and Borders Police said a letter was in the post.

A spokeswoman added: "The incident was regrettable. We are very grateful to Mrs Hogarth for her patience.

"We assigned an officer to stay with her for three hours until the door was boarded up, and we'll pay for the damage."

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STRONG ARM OF LAW: Margaret Hogarth at her flat