What happened
On 20 May 2022 a YMCA housing officer went to a flat in Chester Place, Grangetown, Cardiff, with a locksmith to have the locks changed. Other tenants had raised concerns because Palmer had changed the locks himself to keep them out.
As the locksmith started work Palmer appeared at a downstairs window and told them to leave. When the door was opened he said he was the landlord and accused them of trespassing, then came out wearing what appeared to be a stab vest. The officer asked if he was all right. He said he was not, and walked towards her.
She went back to her car, called the police and her manager, and warned another resident to get away. Palmer then appeared at a bedroom window with what looked like a small black handgun and pointed it at her and the resident. They got behind her car and drove off. She said afterwards that she feared she would have been killed had she not called the police. Palmer was reported as being in drug-induced psychosis.
The outcome
Firearms officers attended and Palmer came out with his hands up. The gun was a 6mm gas-powered airsoft pistol, which the law treats as an imitation firearm.
At Newport Crown Court in March 2024 he was sentenced to 21 months, suspended for 12 months, with a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement, after pleading guilty to possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear or violence, and to possession with intent to supply class B drugs. The recorder told him the officer had a right to do her job without being threatened.
What went wrong
This was an enforcement task, not a tenancy visit. The locks were being changed against a tenant who had already changed them once to control access, and other tenants had complained. That is a known flashpoint, resourced with one officer and a locksmith.
A locksmith is not a colleague. He has a job at the door and no role in managing the tenant. The sources describe no police presence, no second officer and no protective detail.
By the time Palmer appeared in body armour the officer had already lost the doorway: he was in the flat, she was outside, and the only barrier was a door he controlled.
What it teaches
Doorstep enforcement of a hostile tenant is a different risk from a visit to discuss a tenancy, and it should be planned as one: two staff at least, an agreed exit, and a decision rule written down in advance for when to stop and leave.
Leaving early has to be a normal action rather than a failure. She did the right thing and the case still went to court: disengaging protected her and gave the police the account they needed.
Where the phone is, and where the car key is, before you knock. She used both.
Questions for the room
- Which of this week’s visits is contested, escalating, and gives the tenant control of the door?
- If the door opens on someone in body armour, what tells you to stop?
- Where are your keys and your phone when you knock?
Evidence and limits
Confidence: probable, on the record’s mark, from a single outlet: Wales Online, reporting the Crown Court sentencing in March 2024. The officer is not named, and her account of fear is her own as given in court. The pack gives 21 months suspended for 12 months; the record says the precise term is not stated in the source it reviewed, so the figure comes from the pack and is not confirmed twice.
Our lone working training covers enforcement visits, the doorway and the decision to leave.
Sources
- Wales Online · Man pointed imitation gun at housing officer during drug induced psychosis · 2024
Reviewed 20 October 2026.