Driver facing prison sentence for setting fire to two police vehicles

A private hire car driver accused of setting fire to a police riot van in Edinburgh has been cleared despite targeting police vehicles with petrol just two weeks earlier.

Ishan Yurbas, 41, was alleged to have torched the reinforced Police Scotland van as it sat parked outside the Gayfield Square station by pouring petrol over the wheels and setting it ablaze.

Officers were forced to evacuate the station and nearby homes as the destroyed riot van was engulfed in flames. The total cost of the damage to the fully-equipped riot van, which was written off after the incident on 5 June, was about £50,000.

But Mr Yurbas was cleared of the fire attack following a three-day trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last week when a jury returned a not proven verdict.

The verdict was given despite the Turkish national admitting to being in the area about 4am.

Mr Yurbas was separately found guilty of pouring petrol over the wheels of a patrol car and marked police transit van outside Leith police station when he was caught on CCTV.

The court was shown images from a nearby pub showing Mr Yurbas outside the Leith station crouching down beside the police vehicles on 22 May.

Witnesses later smelled the petrol and a plastic bag with a Vimto bottle containing petrol. Mr Yurbas’s fingerprints were found on the discarded bottle.

Sheriff Robert Fife told Mr Yurbas, from Edinburgh, to expect to receive a custodial sentence later this month.