Jailed: Man, 29, set fire to BMW in ongoing feud
A man has been jailed after admitting setting fire to a BMW in an on-going feud.
Ashley Cunliffe, aged 29, who was arrested shortly after the incident in Newtown, was sent to prison for 18 months at Mold Crown Court yesterday after he admitted arson.
He also received an additional 16 weeks to serve consecutively because he was in breach of a suspended sentence at the time.
The court was told that on his release Cunliffe, of Llys Bedw, Trehafren, Newtown, intended to move away from the area.
Judge David Hale told him that he had admitted a serious offence – an arson attack which was a deliberate act as part of an on-going feud.
“You knew it was not going to help you if you set fire to a car. You did so in temper,” the judge said.
“I hope you are right when you say that Newtown is not for you anymore and that you intend to move away,” Judge Hale told him. But the judge added he had to reflect the seriousness of what he had done within weeks of being placed on a suspended sentence.
“You have to draw a line under the whole thing,” explained Judge Hale. An indefinite restraining order was made not to approach the owner of the car or his partner.
Prosecuting barrister Ms Jade Tufail said that the arson happened on the evening of December 10. The owner’s girlfriend had heard a noise and had seen a man who she recognised as the defendant at her boyfriend’s car. She said that the car, valued at £3,000, had been written off in the blaze.
Mr Alun Williams, defending, said that his client should receive maximum credit in sentencing for pleading guilty at the first opportunity.
He told how there was a background to the feud with a history of tit-for-tat reprisals including the burning of his mother’s car. Mr Williams added there was no pre-planning to the arson.
He said Cunliffe was realistic about his present position, had shown remorse and he knew that he had been exceedingly foolish. There had been some distance between the car and residential property and no suggestion that life had been endangered.
The court heard how a pizza case had been set alight and placed under the vehicle’s engine compartment to start the blaze.
