Asda Arsonist Torched Merchandise

A Weymouth man torched a clothing rail at the town's Asda store after being encouraged to "go robbing" by a friend.

Alan Bowditch, 20, of Barclay Road, Weymouth, admitted a charge of arson when he appeared at Weymouth Magistrates' Court on Thursday, 1st October 2020.

Arson is an offence under section 1(3) of the Criminal Damage Act 1971. It has a maximum penalty of 26 weeks' custody on summary conviction; life imprisonment on conviction on indictment.

The court heard that Bowditch, who has learning difficulties, visited the store on Newstead Road on the evening of Thursday, 19th March 2020.

Shortly after 8 pm a shopper discovered a burning rail of jumpers and attempted to extinguish the blaze with an Asda staff member.

The alarm was raised and customers were evacuated, with the 24 hour store out of action until the following morning.

Bowditch was later arrested, with CCTV capturing the moment he held a lighter to the garments. He made full and frank admissions in interview, saying that a friend had challenged him to "go robbing" at the store.

Andrew Newman, prosecuting, said: "This defendant has gone into an Asda supermarket at 8pm and set fire to stock.

"Customers had to be evacuated. I don't know if there was a higher risk to people. Setting fire to clothing in a department store is an intention to cause an injury to persons."

Mr Newman said that £1,389 worth of damage had been caused, but had the store's sprinklers activated the damage could have been almost £2 million.

Simon Lacey, mitigating, told the court that his client had a mental age of seven.

"You have a young man with a good character with learning difficulties and I don't think he has the intention to cause harm to anyone," Mr Lacey said.

"I think there are lessons to be learned and I think he is scared of going to jail.

"He has now moved away from his friends and lives with his family. I spoke to him and he said he won't get into trouble again.

"I think he realises that these incidents have serious consequences for companies.

"He does have great family support and they are doing their best to support him and get him away from drinking and anti-social behaviour."

Richard MacRae, Presiding Justice, described the offence as "very serious", adding: "The outcome of this could have been horrendous if the fire hadn't been put out."

Bowditch was sentenced to a 12-month community order, with six months' 7 pm - 7 am electronically monitored curfew requirement.

He was also ordered to pay £1,389 in compensation.

I am sure Weymouth colleagues, with the benefit of far more information than we can possibly glean from media reports, carefully considered the most appropriate disposal in this case.

I have to say that my preliminary assessment of this offence, based on the information available and notwithstanding the offender's learning difficulties, is that it probably crossed the custody threshold. Of course just because the custody threshold might be crossed, that doesn't make a custodial sentence inevitable.