'Cowardly' accomplice spared jailed over Oswestry car arson attack
A judge branded a man "cowardly" after he refused to give up the name of the person who set fire to a woman's car near Oswestry.
Adam Millington, 23, drove the offender to the woman's house just outside the town and parked round the corner while the Mini was set alight, before driving them back to his home town of Wrexham.
Shrewsbury Court Heard Millington, of Cherry Tree Road, Bradley, Wrexham, who had previously driven to the woman's house when the offender had slashed the car's roof and deflated a tyre, "panicked" after realising what they had done. He was given a two-year sentence, suspended for two years, after admitting assisting an offender during an earlier hearing on April 26.
The also court heard the woman had been a victim of arson on August 14 while on holiday when an accelerant was poured through a back window of her home, causing extensive damage and leaving her family unable to stay there for some weeks.
Solicitor Dean Easthope, defending, said Millington had been at work for that particular offence and had refused to name the person who committed the offences because he feared reprisals.
The victim eventually installed CCTV at her home and cameras showed Millington's car pulling into her drive on October 13. Millington was seen at the home on November 1 when the unknown person slashed the roof and returned again on November 6.
Prosecutor David Swinnerton said: "Just before 5pm, a figure can bee seen running down the drive, spraying something onto the driver's side of the car and then a flash of flames.
"The man then ran into the car carrying a plastic bottle of accelerant and a lighter. The defendant accepts he knew an arson was committed."
Judge Jim Tindal, sentencing, described Millington's decision not to name the man responsible as "cowardly" and said: "You helped to do something that could have killed someone. In the interests of justice that person is still at large and still a risk."
