Jail time for arsonist

Ashley Rowland, 23, was asked to target the camera by his lorry driver neighbour, Anthony Luty, 28, after his HGV was photographed speeding. But the friends’ bid to avoid prosecution came unstuck when Rowland set fire to the speed camera after police had already removed the footage.

Luty, who was also jailed for nine months, came up with the plan after his articulated lorry was caught doing 49mph on the A631 at Hemswell Cliff.

Lincoln Crown Court heard Luty was filmed at 4.30am on 17th October last year, and realising he had been photographed, asked Rowland to return to the site the next day and set fire to the camera. Rowland, who at the time lived next door to Luty in North End Drive, Doncaster, went back alone to the scene at around 10pm on 18th October and used a trye and accelerant to carry out an arson attack on the device. But the court was told police had already removed the film of Luty earlier that morning.

The hapless pair were caught when police looked at vehicles in the area over the two days and then realised Luty and Rowland lived next to each other.

Both men admitted a single charge of arson on 18th October 2011,

Passing sentence Judge Sean Morris said: “The thing to do was to wait for the letter and pay the fine. Instead you recruited your neighbour in an exercise frankly to thwart the process of justice.”