Three arsonists jailed over Aldridge mansion fire

Three arsonists who destroyed a Midland mansion that had been seized from a fraudster have been jailed for a combined 15 years.

Two of the men were injured as an explosion ripped through the country home in Aldridge after they started the fire. The mansion in Chester Road had been valued at around £1 million and was due to be sold.

Stafford Crown Court heard the arsonists travelled from Nottingham and doused the empty property in petrol.

A judge said he believed they had been employed to burn down the building.

The mansion was once the home of career criminal David 'Nipper' Harris, the ringleader of a £35m mortgage racket who was jailed for six years in 1994 for conspiracy to defraud.

Not long before the fire on April 22 last year, it had been seized by the Serious Organised Crime Agency which aimed to sell it under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Richard Sylvester and George Brandy pleaded guilty to arson being reckless to whether life was endangered in February.

Parminder Kandola originally denied any involvement but admitted the offence ahead of trial.

Sylvester suffered more than 50 per cent burns in the explosion which left him so severely injured he was placed into an induced coma for three months.

He was taken to Bloxwich police station by Brandy where it was initially claimed that he had been doused in petrol and set alight by two other men. Brandy also suffered a head injury but Kandola escaped by taxi before being arrested weeks later.

None of th­e men, all from Nottingham, have ever given a proper explanation as to why they were at the mansion.

Sylvester, aged 41, who also admitted possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply was yesterday sentenced to a total of seven years imprisonment - four years for arson and three for drugs offences.

Brandy, 34, was jailed for four years and Kandola, also 34, was put behind bars for four-and-a-half years.

Judge Mark Eades said he believed there was a link to the property being seized.

The judge said: "The motive behind the crime appears to have been a desire to get back, and destroy property that had been seized by the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

"I am not suggesting that was your intended motive but clearly the motive of whoever employed you to carry out this arson. You were the tools used by the organisers."

By Craig Hughes