Tyre centre manager jailed for starting blaze at work

A tyre centre manager who started a huge blaze at his work because he feared he would be fired has been jailed for 28 months.

Colin McReadie, 22, drank 20 pints of lager before letting himself into the Budget Tyre Auto Centre in Edinburgh and setting fire to a rack of tyres using a gas torch.

He then locked the building and went back to the pub, leaving the fire to cause 700,000 of damage.

A passing dog walker called the fire brigade after hearing the fire alarm and seeing smoke coming from the roof of the building in Piershill Place.

Father-of-two McReadie, from 2 Northfield Circus, Edinburgh, pled guilty to wilful fireraising at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.

Sentencing him today, Sheriff Neil Mackinnon said the danger posed to the public meant McReadie had to be jailed.

McReadie, a soldier with the Territorial Army, had been working at the centre for three months and had been promoted to branch manager just two weeks before the incident last September.

Sheriff Mackinnon said he had reduced the sentence from 42 months because McReadie pled guilty at the first opportunity.