AN ON-GOING feud led to a car being torched at Newtown on December 10.

The BMW car valued at £3,000 was destroyed in the blaze.

Defendant Ashley Cunliffe, 29, of Llys Bedw, Trehafren, was jailed for 18 months at Mold Crown Court on Thursday, January 4, after he admitted arson.

He also received an additional 16 weeks consecutive because he was in breach of a suspended sentence at the time.

Judge David Hale told him that he had admitted a serious offence – an arson attack which was a deliberate act as part of an on-going feud.

He knew that he was on a suspended sentence when he continued with the feud.

Judge Hale said: “You knew it was not going to help you if you set fire to a car.

“You did so in temper.

“I hope you are right when you say that Newtown is not for you any more and that you intend to move away.

“You have to draw a line under the whole thing.”

An indefinite restraining order was made not to approach the owner of the car or his partner.

Prosecuting barrister Jade Tufail said that the arson attack occurred on the evening of December 10.

The owner’s girlfriend heard a noise.

She saw a man who she recognised as the defendant by her boyfriend’s car.

Alun Williams, defending, said that his client should receive maximum credit in sentencing for pleading guilty at the first opportunity at Wrexham Magistrates’ Court.

The court heard how a pizza box had been set alight and placed under the vehicle’s engine compartment.

There was a background to the feud with a history of tit-for-tat reprisals

There was no pre-planning to the arson which occurred as Cunliffe walked home.

He was realistic about his present position, had shown remorse and he knew that he had been exceedingly foolish.

There was some distance between the car and residential property and no suggestion that life had been endangered.