A COUPLE'S bedroom was "engulfed" by a fireball after a drink-driver set his parents' car ablaze after crashing it. Adam Clark, 31, was jailed for five years after he was convicted by jury of reckless arson following a trial at Hull Crown Court.
Clark, of Hull Road, Howden, had been drinking with his friend Louise Jones in the Creykes Arms Hotel and the Royal Oak when he ploughed his parents' Citroen Saxo into the garden wall of a house in Chapel Lane, Rawcliffe, near Goole.
He abandoned the car, but 20 minutes later returned to the scene and set the car, which was directly below Beverley Lee and Liam Saunders' bedroom, on fire.
His lawyer described it as "irrational, ridiculous, lunatic behaviour".
Prosecuting, Louise Reevell said: "He was driving along the Riverside and on to Chapel Lane and collided with a wall on two occasions and then ultimately into a garden wall in Chapel Lane.
"The car was abandoned under the archway, above which was the complainants' bedroom. They were awoken to the sound of a car hitting the wall at midnight and saw the defendant. She told him he couldn't leave his car there and he told her it had broken down and that he would be back for it, so she went back to bed.
"They were awoken then to the sound of a huge explosion and flames coming up the bedroom window.
"They saw the car had been set alight and the police and fire brigade were alerted."
Mr Saunders suffered an eye injury and breathing difficulties when he tried to put out the fire, and the couple were thrown back onto the bed by the heat and smashing glass.
After the crash, Clark returned to the Creykes Arms, but CCTV caught him leaving the pub at 11.42am and returning three minutes later from the direction of Chapel Lane wearing different clothes.
He returned to the scene with the barman, who was not named in court, and as they looked at the burnt-out shell, he said to him: "That's my car, I set it on fire."
Fire investigators ruled the fire was arson and had been started in the front passenger side of the car.
Clark was arrested but he refused to provide a breath sample for toxicology analysis.
In mitigation, Paul Genney said: "There is photographic evidence showing the marks on the wall made by the car and for some ridiculous reason – and no doubt it is poor mitigation – but whilst he was drunk, he disposed of the evidence by setting fire to it because it was his mother's car.
"It was irrational, ridiculous, lunatic behaviour."
The offence happened on August 5, 2012, but the case only reached trial in August of this year following a series of delays, including adjourning for psychiatric reports, which ruled Clark was mentally well.
Sentencing Clark, whose family and girlfriend were in court, Recorder David Osborne said: "The complainants heard what can only be described as a huge explosion from outside and below their bedroom.
"The fireball from the car engulfed their bedroom.
"It came up the side, there were sparks, the heat was such it cracked the glass in the bedroom window.
"The panic and distress you caused was still very vivid in the mind of Miss Lee, who was still very upset as she recalled it as evidence.
"You crashed this vehicle belonging to someone else and in some ham-fisted effort in hiding what you had done, you set fire to it with little regard to the people in the bedroom above it.
"It was a wholly reckless and dangerous, criminal act."
Clark was also sentenced to three months in jail, to run concurrently, for failing to provide a sample of breath and banned from driving for a year.
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