Filton man jailed for setting fire to 20 vehicles - many of them community group minibuses
Avon and Somerset Police say it happened in the early hours of 3 April last year
A man from Filton has been jailed after pleading guilty to 21 counts of arson at a previous hearing.
He is reported to have caused 'hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage', according to a statement from Avon and Somerset Police.
Daniel Cron, 26, of Filton, appeared at Bristol Crown Court yesterday (Wednesday 11 January) where he was sentenced having pleaded guilty to the counts of arson – to 20 vehicles and a fence – at a previous hearing.
The police say Cron was joined with a man, who is yet to be identified.
They set fire to private and commercial vehicles in the Bradley Stoke and Stoke Gifford areas of South Gloucestershire in the early hours of 3 April last year.
A large number of the vehicles were minibuses.
These are said to have belonged to a community group which provided transport services for vulnerable adults and children.
Following the incident, detectives appealed for the public’s help for CCTV footage - with dozens of people handing over footage from private CCTV, dashcams and doorbell cameras.
Using the footage, officers then tracked Cron and the other man as he set fire to the vehicles.
The incident lasted around three and a half hours, according to the force.
Inspector Steve Davey, of Operation Remedy, said: “Cron has never offered any explanation for his actions and it was only by sheer luck that nobody was seriously injured or killed.
“While no one was hurt, vulnerable members of the community lost a vital transport resource while the community group which owned the minibuses along with other motorists suffered a significant financial hit and the inconvenience of replacing their vehicles.”
He added: “We’re extremely grateful for the support we received from the public following our appeals. Their help in providing us with footage saved a lot of valuable police time and enabled us to quickly put together a route Cron and the other man took and provided the evidence we needed to secure this conviction.”