Addict who owed £27k drug debt torched caravans in ‘revenge attack’
HE WAS ACTING UNDER ORDERS, COURT TOLD
AN ARSONIST set fire to caravans, a car and a van in a revenge attack over a drug debt.
Derby Crown Court heard how Scott Smith had been ordered to drive to a farm in Derbyshire and start the blaze by people he owed £27,000 to.
The hearing was told the son of the owner of the land where the vehicles were stored also owed the same men cash.
Smith, 30, who caused almost £16,000 in damage, was caught by the police when his fingerprints were found inside one of the caravans and his DNA was on a bottle found at the scene.
Jailing him for 18 months, Judge Shaun Smith QC said: “I am perfectly satisfied you were lending yourself to this revenge attack against the victims’ son.
“You travelled some distance to set fire to the caravans.”
Sarah Phelan, prosecuting, said the arson attack took place at a farm in Rotherham Road, Killamarsh, on July 18, 2019.
She said the owners of the land, a couple who lived in an adjacent property, made money by renting their land to people to store caravans and vehicles. Miss Phelan said they were awoken by a neighbour banging on a window alerting them to the blaze. She said: “The husband described what he said was an ‘orange glow’ coming from the land and the fire service were called to attend and put out the fire.
“In a statement the husband said he found two bottles on the land – one was Lucozade – and that they smelled like petrol or fuel had been in them.
“He later told police that he believed this was a revenge attack because his son had got involved in taking drugs and owed a £2,500 drug debt.”
Miss Phelan said Smith was identified from the fingerprints and DNA and answered “no comment” to the questions he was asked in his police interview. She read out two victim impact statements made by the couple in which one of them said they were now scared to leave their home at night.
Miss Phelan said two caravans, a Vauxhall Astra van and a Jaguar car were totally destroyed by fire, and a third caravan suffered some damage.
Smith, of Lund Lane, Lundwood, Barnsley, pleaded guilty to four counts of arson and one count of attempted arson.
He has seven previous convictions for eight offences, but nothing as serious as this one.
Tom Heath, mitigating, said his client had built up a £27,000 debt to dealers due to his addiction to crack cocaine and had been ordered to drive to Derbyshire from South Yorkshire and set the fire. He said: “My specific instructions from him are that he, himself, did not have any issues with these people. “Fortunately there was nobody in these caravans, but that is more by luck than judgement.”
(The victim) believed this was a revenge attack because his son had got involved in taking drugs. Sarah Phelan