A 26-YEAR-old man has been warned that he will go to prison after he admitted starting a fire at a pub’s beer garden which caused £23,000 damage.

Thomas Meenaghan’s guilty plea came on the third day of his trial at Worcester Crown Court and before the prosecution case had finished.

He admitted simple arson but denied the alternative of arson being reckless whether life was endangered.

The jury was discharged after his pleas had been entered.

Meenaghan, of Hangman’s Lane, Hanley Swan, was remanded in custody for psychiatric and probation reports. Judge Robert Juckes QC told him that the offence of arson was extremely serious and custody was inevitable. He adjourned sentencing until April 13.

Accepting the not guilty plea to recklessness, prosecutor Willam Rickarby said the arson offence happened at night and Meenaghan would not have been aware that there was an occupied property next to the external summer bar at the Star Inn, in High Street, Upton-upon-Severn.

Neighbours in Bridge House, William Hawkes and Peggy Ward, were able to leave their home and were unhurt.

The court heard that Meenaghan was told to go home after licensee Warwick Ellis saw him arguing with a woman.

Meenaghan was not aggressive but a few minutes later a fire broke out in the summer bar. Two tyres on Mr Ellis's Range Rover parked in an alley alongside the pub were found to be deflated.

Mr Rickarby said Meenaghan had been drinking at various pubs in Upton on February 12 last year and appeared angry and upset over a row with a woman. A witness had seen him acting suspiciously near the Range Rover.

The application for bail by defence barrister Adam Western was rejected after it was revealed that Meenaghan had 15 convictions for 31 offences since 2002.