Michael Grieve, 47, says he is currently being forced to live in limbo overseas unable to see his eight-year-old daughter and has watched his booming graphic design business go to the wall. The farce has so far cost him around £150,000.

He says his wife Reatile, 28, has been refused a visa despite the couple being given the green light to get married in Northumberland two years ago following a series of interviews with immigration officers.

In desperation the couple, who initially met online, moved to the Republic of Ireland to temporarily live while the visa issue was sorted out.

But they say the Home Office has gone to “extraordinary lengths” to try and prevent them living together by repeatedly claiming documents had either been misplaced or not submitted.

They even questioned if Reatile could speak English while she was working in an Irish call centre.

To finance their fight to live together Mr Grieve was forced to rent out his five-bedroom luxury home in Morpeth, Northumberland, putting it in the hands of a property management company.

But to his dismay the seemingly respectable couple he was told had rented the house were not the real tenants.

Instead the plush suburban home was turned into a £1m cannabis farm by what police believe was a Vietnamese gang who trafficked people illegally into the UK to grow the drug.

Police have estimated that the total value of just one harvest would have been worth over £250,000, with almost every room in the house having been cleared to make room for the crop.

But in a bitter twist the property in March was ravaged by fire when the electrics overheated after the gang spliced into the mains supply to power the high-powered lamps they use to grow their illicit plants.

The internal damage is estimated at around £30,000 yet Mr Grieve has been told a complication with the letting agreement may nullify insurance for the property.

To add to his woes around £70,000 has been wiped off the value of his home and his business has collapsed and he has run-up massive mortgage arrears and debts.

Mr Grieve said: “We are desperate and don’t quite know what to do. The Home Office allowed us to marry in the UK but in order to remain together, we decided to move to Ireland temporarily so that we could prepare her settlement visa application for the UK.

“This would enable me, for a few months, to still be within fairly easy reach of my daughter from my previous marriage.

“But since our application the Home Office have gone to extraordinary, unmistakable and yet unfathomable lengths to prevent my wife from entering the country to be with myself and my daughter.

“We meet all eligibility criteria and all necessary paperwork has been supplied but somehow we still find ourselves having our application rejected, our subsequent appeal denied and being forced to fight for the right to be in my own country together in court.

“We have wasted 15 months of our lives and I am placed in the utterly thankless position where I have to choose between being with my wife or being with my daughter.”

A police investigation is ongoing into the house fire but so far no-one has been arrested. 

Mr Grieve added: “The immigration system in the UK and the legislation which governs it is rotten to the core.

“Honest, hard-working people are paying a fortune for a service which is not being provided at all, never mind to any level of reasonable expectation.

“Meanwhile, the criminal activity on the part of foreign drug dealers and subsequent fire at my once beautiful home demonstrate with crystal clarity that the UK is a place where decent people who try to adhere to the system and the law are penalised whilst foreign criminals can pour into the country illegally and do whatever they wish with little danger of any consequence.”

Reatile said: “I have given up everything to be with the man I love. I had a good career and I’m desperate to work. But I feel like everything has been cruelly taken away from us for reasons I just cannot understand.”

Mr Grieve says his case demonstrates how the Government’s ‘Hostile Environment Policy’ to slash immigration figures is far from being simply directed at illegal immigrants and is causing mammoth distress to genuine cases.

He added: “I am now about to lose my home. I have no tenants, therefore no way of paying the mortgage on the property and an uninhabitable house which I have no means of repairing.

“I am faced with unmanageable debts which have accrued as a direct result of not being able to get back into my own country and bankruptcy is now almost inevitable for me.

“I have also experienced crippling anxiety and depression for almost a year now because of this. None of this would have happened had the Home Office treated us fairly, provided the service we paid for and carried out their duties with diligence, honesty and competence.

“Had we been back home within the time frame we were initially told, we would be living in our home and much of this sorry scenario could have been avoided entirely.”

MP Ian Lavery MP said: “Having dealt with Mr Grieve’s case for the past 12 months, I have been extremely disappointed by the Home Office continually frustrating what should be a straight forward process. 

“I wrote to the Secretary of State requesting an urgent meeting on the 6th April to discuss Michael’s situation, shockingly, I am still yet to receive any response.

“Whilst the Tragedy of the fire at the Grieves’ home should be blamed on nobody but the criminals who ultimately caused the devastation, the delays of the Home Office and the Government’s over-zealous hostile immigration policy has no doubt been a contributing factor to the ongoing misery and anguish of my constituent and his family.”

A Home Office spokesman said they were unable to comment on the case while an appeal was ongoing but insisted no documents had been lost.

He added:  “All applications for settlement visas are carefully considered on their individual merits, in line with the immigration rules, and are based on evidence provided by the applicant.”

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: “At around 12.54am on Tuesday, March 13, police received a request for assistance at a house fire in Ashington.

“Police and the fire service attended the scene and the fire was extinguished. It was brought to the attention of police that a cannabis farm had been discovered at the property.

“It is believed that the fire could have been caused by an electrical fault relating to equipment used for the cannabis plants.

“Inquiries are ongoing to identify the offenders responsible.”

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