Welwyn Garden City arsonists jailed

TWO teenage arsonists, who caused more than �20,000 worth of damage after blowing up a mechanic’s workshop, have been jailed.

Shane Warner, 18, and Sean Michelin, 19, set fire to a car outside a warehouse in Peartree Farm, WGC, in the early hours of March 27 last year.

The vehicle exploded, destroying three other cars and a workshop.

The pair were found guilty of arson last month.

At the sentencing at St Albans Crown Court on Friday, both the defendants’ lawyers asked judge Stephen Warner for leniency.

Tim Banks, defending Warner, said his client had had “real difficulties” in coming to terms with his mother’s death from breast cancer three years ago, which had played a factor in his behaviour.

He added Warner, who has just completed a jail term for driving offences, had been a “model prisoner” and had taken a number of courses to help improve his reading and writing.

Laban Leake, defending Michelin, said that since the fire, Michelin had not re offended or broken a curfew placed on him since August.

Mr Leake added that in recent months Michelin had been working as a scrap metal dealer, and that his employer was willing to hold a position open for Michelin for a period of time should he be jailed.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Warner said: “The fact is that the fire you caused spread and caused extensive damage, valued at �20,000 to the garage and also damage to the cars that were destroyed in the process.

“That caused loss, inconvenience and distress to the people who owned this property.”

Warner, of Edgars Court, WGC, was jailed for 14 months.

Michelin, of Beechfield Road, WGC, was sentenced to 11 months.