A teenager who started a fire that tore through dozens of lorry trailers at business premises in Peterborough, causing more than £750,000 worth of damage, has been handed a community order.
Kian Setchfield, now 19, admitted committing arson at Hotpoint’s base in Fletton almost five years ago when he was 15 years old.
Emergency services were called on 29 August 2019 following reports of a blaze, which initially was thought to have caused about £2m worth of damage to 48 trailers.
The following day, police arrested five teenagers in connection with the incident.
Cambridgeshire police said it then carried out a complex investigation into the fire, which resulted in Setchfield and Craig Allpress, 23, being charged in October 2021.
They were both charged with arson causing damage worth £754,871 to HGV trailers and their contents, as well as criminal damage to white goods belonging to Hotpoint.
Setchfield admitted the Hotpoint offences but denied three other charges, all of which were accepted in court.
Allpress denied the charges against him but was found guilty of criminal damage following a trial at Huntingdon Law Court in May. He was cleared of arson.
At Cambridge Crown Court Setchfield was sentenced to an 18-month community order and 25 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement and 30 days of a thinking skills programme.
Allpress was given a 12-month conditional discharge.
