A dad has been spared jail after setting two vans alight close to their owner's properties after a drinks binge. Andrew Abbott drank a 'prodigious' amount of alcohol on the evening of April 22 last year before setting the vehicles on fire in a 'spontaneous' and 'ludicrous' hour.
Between 10 and 11pm on that evening police received reports of a vehicle being set alight on Longworth Road in Bolton. The first victim, Darren Smethurst, was at home with his family when he received a call from a neighbour telling him his van was on fire.
He ran from the home into an adjoining alleyway where he found his vehicle's wingmirror on fire, before running back inside to grab pans of water to put the blaze out with. A short time later a resident of the same road, Jason Kay, who was asleep in bed got a knock on the bedroom door saying their van was on fire in the driveway.
He looked out of his bedroom window to see the an area of the passenger side door ablaze. The fire service attended and told him that it was the second incident of that kind on the road that evening.
Prosecuting at Bolton Crown Court, Maria Brannan, said that door bell CCTV footage on Mr Smethurst's property showed a male walking past the property at that time wearing a distinctive high-vis work jacket. This footage was used to identify Abbott, 36, who was arrested by police days later.
Ms Brannan said that Abbott made full admissions to what he had done in police interview. He told police he had been drinking heavily that evening and did not know why he had started the fires. He also told police it made him feel "sick to his stomach".
A victim impact statement from Mr Smethurst, read to the court, said the "ordeal had caused a great deal of stress". He added he had spent two years upgrading the van to be used as a camper van for family holidays. Mr Smethurst would use the camper van to take his young family on holidays but is now unable to do this due to Abbott's "selfish" actions.
"We used going away in the van as a way of escaping every day life," he added. The statement said that he is now concerned about his security at his house.
Mr Kay's statement said he has been left "angry and frustrated" as it happened "right on his doorstep". "It couldn't be any closer to home, I thought it would be safe," he added.
"My daughter has been left feeling scared and wouldn't sleep in her own bed. Who has the right to make her feel like that?" Mr Kay added that the van was written off after the fire which has affected his work.
Defending Abbott, Mark Friend, said that he had entered a guilty plea at the earliest chance to the two counts of arson and described the incident as an "inexplicable" thing for a father and someone in full-time employment to do. Mr Friend added that on the day of the incidents Abbott had learned his father only had months to live which led to him drinking that 'prodigious' amount of alcohol.
Abbott recognises the impact it had on the victims, Mr Friend said, and has 'genuine contrition'. "He is aghast at how he behaved that evening, no excuses." Adding, that it was "spontaneous and ludicrous".
Abbott, of Ormston Avenue, Horwich, was sentenced to 12 months concurrently for the two counts of arson, suspended for two years. He was also ordered to do 180 hours unpaid work and pay £800 in compensation between the two victims.
Sentencing Abbott, honorary recorder of Bolton, Judge Martin Walsh, told him these were "two meaningless acts of vandalism" with consequences on "entirely innocent people". "You set fire to two vehicles and caused enormous inconvenience to individuals who were victims of crime," judge Walsh added.
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