Setting fire to a coal shed and washhouse near Milton put an elderly couple's lives at risk, as they were sleeping just metres away, Judge Paul Kellar said in the Balclutha District Court yesterday.
Matthew Robert Jones (18), unemployed, of Milton, was sentenced to 11 months' home detention and 200 hours' community work on an indictably laid charge of arson, on Christmas Day. He was ordered to pay reparation of $16,092 to the victim, and $10,096 to AMI Insurance.
Jones admitted several other charges arising from incidents near Milton early on Christmas Day - another arson, two charges of intentional damage and two of theft, and burglary - for which he was sentenced to concurrent terms of home detention.
Jones also admitted two charges of intentional damage, and breaching community work, for which he was convicted and discharged.
Judge Kellar said Jones had been at a friend's place and was "extremely drunk". While walking home, he went into a garage, opened a tin of paint, and tipped it over a car, causing considerable damage. He doused an outboard motorboat with petrol and set it alight, destroying it.
Jones set fire to a wheelie bin inside the coal shed, and to washing inside a washhouse, destroying both, while the property's two elderly occupants, in their early 80s, lay sleeping just metres away. The blaze caused paint on the house to blister.
He set fire to a wooden basket and blankets on the couple's porch.
Moving on, he stole tools from a truck at another property, and set grass and a woodpile alight.
He took a 20-litre container of petrol from another property, and two speakers, which he later smashed, from a fourth property.
Judge Kellar said the coal shed and washhouse fires posed a "real risk to life" for the elderly couple, who were still traumatised by what happened. Jones, who said he had no memory of the events, caused more than $26,000 damage during his crime spree.
