A £40,000 car was torched after its owner complained about loud music.
Jamie Wilde was sentenced to four and a half years in prison after setting fire to the vehicle outside a home in Sutton.
The defendant carried out what prosecutors described as a "revenge attack" on Drybeck Grove. The car was parked on its owner’s driveway when it was set alight in the early hours of January 6, 2024.
Wilde was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, September 4. He had been identified after being seen buying petrol at a filling station shortly before the fire.
Prosecuting barrister Gerald Baxter told the court the car owner was woken by a neighbour banging on his window and telling him the vehicle was burning.
He went outside and found the car and a green petrol can engulfed in flames. Mr Baxter said it was “obvious that the fire had been started deliberately”.
The court heard the victim had gone to a neighbour’s home a couple of evenings earlier to complain about very loud music. The response was “hostile”, and the music was turned up instead of being reduced.
Mr Baxter said the victim “believed his car was set on fire because he had the temerity to complain about the music”.
CCTV showed Wilde being taken by taxi from Ridgewood Drive to a filling station, where he bought petrol. He was later recorded walking towards Drybeck Grove before running back to Ridgewood Drive shortly afterwards.
Mr Baxter said footage from the filling station led to Wilde being identified. Following his arrest, Wilde gave police a no-comment interview.
The court was told 34-year-old Wilde had 32 previous convictions. They included an arson offence committed when he was a youth, as well as convictions involving drugs, burglary, shoplifting and stalking.
His previous record was listed as an aggravating factor. Prosecutors also said he was on bail when he committed the arson, while awaiting sentence for a theft and battery matter.
Defending Wilde, Anthony Donohoe said his client was “motivated to try and get away from drugs and drink”.
Mr Donohoe acknowledged Wilde’s sentence “has to be custody” and asked for it “to be as short as possible”.
Wilde appeared before the court by video link from custody as Judge Simon Medland KC passed sentence.
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Judge Medland said: “You have a vast number of previous convictions and that is likely because of your drug taking over the years.
“It always does bring nothing but despair and destruction in its wake. Your life has been ruined by drugs.
“I accept it will be difficult to turn your life around by abstaining from drugs ad getting yourself sober.
“If you do, there is every prospect of you being able to resume your relationship with your son and set your life on a very different course.”
The judge said he had a public duty to impose a sentence reflecting the seriousness of the offence.
Judge Medland said: “However, I have a public duty to perform, that is to set out a sentence which best reflects the very serious nature of this offence.
“The facts of this offence are just too serious for anything other than an immediate custodial sentence.”
He set a starting point of six years in prison, then reduced it by 25 per cent because Wilde, of Canberra Avenue, Thatto Heath, had pleaded guilty to arson.
The final sentence was four and a half years. Judge Medland also imposed a restraining order preventing Wilde from contacting the victim for 10 years.
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