Man set fire to £17,000 after row

A man set fire to about £17,000 of his savings after an argument with his partner, a court has heard.

Leo Casey, 63, locked himself inside his house in Sherwood, Nottingham, in July 2007, and set fire to the pile of cash, the city's Crown Court was told.

His partner, Gabriella Augustynowicz, called the police during the row.

Casey, now of Sinfin in Derby, admitted committing arson recklessly and was sentenced to an 18-month community punishment with 18 months' supervision.

Money to burn

The court heard that when police arrived at his home on Edgingley Road, Casey ignited a bundle of £20 notes and threw it out of a window.

Officers then noticed smoke coming from upstairs where Casey was setting fire to a pile of money in the bathroom.

It was impossible to determine the exact sum of cash destroyed, the court was told.

Sentencing him, Recorder Shaun Smith QC, noted that Casey had been "under severe personal pressure" at the time of the incident.

He said: "The loss to you in this case is somewhere in the region of £17,000. That is a substantial loss."

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