A WOMAN who set fire to her own shop has been spared a jail sentence.
Amanda Pond, of Ebury Place, Handbridge, deliberately torched Rose-a-Lily, the children’s clothes shop she owned in Nantwich, on June 19 last year to gain insurance money, Chester Crown Court heard.
More than £60,000 worth of damage was caused by the blaze, including to the neighbouring business View and Jepson’s men's clothing store which suffered extensive smoke damage and was forced to sell off suits at discounted prices.
The single mother-of-two was sentenced to 12-months in prison, suspended for two years, after she last month changed her original plea to guilty.
Though he described her actions as ‘wicked and wrong’, Judge Roger Dutton decided not to impose a jail sentence, largely because of Pond’s ailing health, and the fact she is the main carer for her two teenage daughters.
Prosecutor Peter Moss told the court that on the evening of the blaze, a resident living across the road from the shop had noticed ‘an explosion of smoke’ coming from the premises, which were vacant and securely locked.
Fire crews arrived in minutes to put out the flames and later concluded it had been deliberately started.
Police were able to obtain CCTV footage of Nantwich town centre on the evening of the fire, which showed Pond, 46, entering the shop and then leaving shortly afterwards, minutes before the fire was reported.
But Pond denied having visited the shop, and claimed to have been drinking vodka and was therefore unable to drive.
Despite going into elaborate detail of the TV programme she had been watching that night to throw them off the scent, Pond was arrested on suspicion of arson the next morning.
She denied the charges, insisting that she had only gone to the shop to retrieve some money, but last month, days before her trial was due to begin, she changed her plea to guilty.
John Wyn Williams, defending, asked the judge to take into account her ‘serious and significant illness’ which has triggered a change in speech circulation and will eventually lead to inevitable paralysis, as well as the effect that custody would have on her children.
He added that Pond, who walks with a cane, now fully realises the seriousness of her crime.
Judge Dutton also ordered Pond to live and sleep every night at her home for the duration of her sentence.
