Telford man tried to use petrol to clear his overgrown lawn and set distraught neighbour's house on fire
A Telford man who poured a jerry can of petrol on grass cuttings but ended up engulfing his home and the next-door property in an inferno has been sentenced.
Gheorghe Milac, aged 40, admitted arson with recklessness as to whether life was endangered, after the incident in Hayward Avenue, Donnington on June 29 last year.
Mr Simon Hanns, prosecuting, said the Romanian national was living in a home of multiple occupancy and had been cutting the front and back garden when he started the blaze at the front of his home around 6pm in the evening, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard on Monday (June 30).
He said that witnesses including neighbours of Milac, as well a housemate, spotted the 40-year-old with a green jerry can, which he used to pour petrol over a pile of grass cuttings.
“He then used a lighter and ignited it,” said Mr Hanns. “The defendant initially stared at the fire, then he panicked when he saw the extent of the fire.”
