A MAN who caused £40,000 worth of damage when he started a fire outside an Upton pub after a row with the landlord has been jailed for three years.

Thomas Meenaghan, aged 26, of Hangman’s Lane, Hanley Swan, had a row with a woman customer at the Star Inn in Upton-upon-Severn and was asked to leave by landlord Warwick Ellis.

He went outside and let down the tyres of the landlord’s Rover “out of spite”, then used his pocket cigarette lighter to set fire to a stack of deckchairs on some wooden decking against a wall. Neighbours in Bridge House, William Hawkes and Peggy Ward, had to flee their home.

William Rickarby, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court the fire threatened nearby buildings. It caused £23,000 worth of damage to the pub and had resulted in the landlord’s insurance premiums being raised by £3,500 a year. It also caused £16,000 worth of damage to the flat.

People involved said it was a “frightening” experience and Mr Rickarby said that it might have been a different outcome if they had been indoors a few minutes more.

Meenaghan, who was not aware the next door building was occupied, had been drinking all day at the time of the incident last February.

He lit the fire, then went to another pub for a drink before returning to see the effects. He claimed he had gone back to put it out but there was already a crowd of people attending to it so he left. He denied arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered and part of the way into his trial in April, the prosecution accepted his plea of guilty to simple arson.

Adam Western, defending, said there was no pre-meditation and a psychiatric report showed Meenaghan did not have an obsession with flames.

“It was done as an act of spite and repented very quickly,” he said.

Meenaghan was a hard-working man who has a responsible job in prison and intends to go on drink awareness programmes.

The court heard Meenaghan had 15 previous convictions, many for violence and usually involving drink.

Judge Robert Juckes said he did not accept that Meenaghan had gone back to the fire to help put it out. He said Meenaghan had a “nasty streak” in him but he also had another side as a father to his young daughter.

He knew the landlord and on the night of the fire, it was a perfectly reasonable request for him to leave.

But he had gone on to commit a serious offence which had caused a lot of damage.

The 110 days Meenaghan has spent in custody will be subtracted from his sentence.