Arsonist sent to prison for setting Northampton council house on fire in attempts to get a bigger one

A Northampton man has been sentenced to three years and four months in prison after setting fires in his partner’s council house in attempts to get a bigger property.

Jacob Webb, aged 28, of Nursery Lane, Kingsthorpe, Northampton, was sentenced at Northampton Crown Court on Thursday (March 31) for four incidents of arson, two of which were deemed to endanger lives.

The court heard that Webb lit the fires to “trick” Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH) into giving his partner a bigger house she had been bidding for but had yet to receive.

The court heard that Webb hoped NPH would label the house “uninhabitable” on account of “electrical faults” that he claimed to be causing the fires.

Andrew Fitch-Holland, prosecuting, said: “For some time, the partner had been waiting for another property and had repeatedly complained to property agents that she had not obtained a larger house.

"Then what appeared to happen was her partner, Mr Webb, began to start fires around the property in an attempt to acquire a new property for her.

"He first started electrical fires in the kitchen, which then escalated to fires in the bathroom.

"Both of the adults and children were all present at the time and the woman was again complaining to housing agents about not having been rehoused.

"The housing agent thought the fires were odd, but put it down to an electrical fault.

"At 10am one morning, another fire was reported and a housing agent was taken to the bathroom and was pointed to the extractor fan, which had fresh burn marks. The family was not rehoused.

"Skip to 11am and low and behold the fire service received a report of yet another fire.”

Webb’s partner was initially jointly charged for the arsons, however she was exonerated by claiming ignorance of the fires and being “afraid” of Webb.

Webb was ultimately charged for four instances of arson, including one incident where he lit the wall behind the house’s oven ablaze using a flammable material.

His “most severe” arson, according to His Honour Judge Mayo, presiding, involved him setting a bathroom panel on fire, causing “substantial melting” of the plastic and, due to the bathroom’s location, was deemed to endanger the inhabitants’ lives by filling the hall with so much smoke as to impede their escape from the fire.

Liam Muir, speaking in Webb’s defence, argued that Webb’s clean criminal history prior to the arson, as well as unspecified mental health challenges, should be taken into account as he spends his “first time in detention”.

Judge Mayo said in sentencing: “You were prohibited by restraining order from visiting your former partner or her children. But you were staying with them, I will accept, at her invitation.

"The evidence is clear that you were putting at risk the lives of the family living there and the lives of emergency workers who repeatedly responded to the scene.

"You were of good character and have no previous convictions.

"However there is here an escalation of activity.

"Property uninhabitable means that homeless people have less available places to live, negatively affecting innocent people.”

Webb was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.