Man jailed over blaze at garage forecourt

Rodrigo Jose Barros Goncalves sparked a blaze that was ‘capable of causing a huge amount of damage’ in what the prosecution branded an ‘appalling and terrifying incident’.

Yesterday, the Royal Court heard that the 31-year-old, who has previous convictions for grave and criminal assault and supplying heroin, set fire to a petrol pump at the Costcutter garage at Kensington Place, striking fear in bystanders that the station would explode in an inferno.

At just before 9 pm on 29 January Goncalves, who was drunk, arrived at the garage in a car with his employer and his employer’s wife.

As the woman was filling the car with petrol, the garage’s CCTV captured Goncalves taking the nozzle from her hand and then several seconds later removing a cigarette lighter from his pocket.

After trying unsuccessfully to ignite the flame, he put the lighter to the nozzle again, this time causing the petrol to combust and flames to spread out across the car, the pump and the garage floor.

The court heard that an attendant inside Costcutter saw the fire and immediately pushed the emergency isolator switch, stopping any further petrol being pumped out.

It is still not known why Goncalves started the blaze.

Although both the defendant and a shop worker quickly extinguished the fire, Crown Advocate David Hopwood said that ‘there was a significant risk that the fire would eventually have engulfed the car’.

‘This fire was lit in a busy petrol station with other members of the public in close proximity,’ he said. ‘The defendant deliberately held a lit cigarette lighter to the nozzle of a petrol pump while it was dispensing petrol.

‘This was an appalling and terrifying incident.

‘Neither the defendant nor the bystanders would have had any idea that the risk of an inferno involving the underground fuel tanks was low.’

The advocate added that the shop worker who helped fight the fire was left feeling ‘sickened, angry and unable to sleep’ and that because of the seriousness of the offence the Crown was seeking a three-year prison sentence.

Advocate Simon Thomas, defending, said that his client, who pleaded guilty to maliciously setting fire to the property of another, was genuinely remorseful and that he had returned to the station the next day to apologise.

‘He was entirely shocked at what he did. In my submission this was an incident that was impulsive and not part of a prior plan,’ he said.

Bailiff William Bailhache said that the court had struggled to understand Goncalves’ motivations and that it appeared to have been ‘a few seconds of very serious stupidity’.

‘Anybody rationally would know that setting fire to petrol pump is capable of causing a huge amount of damage,’ he said. ‘We cannot understand what you were thinking. There could have been serious damage to the car itself, to Mrs Teixeira and to the garage.’

The Bailiff added that because Goncalves was clearly remorseful and that he had taken immediate steps to put out the fire, the court was prepared to lower the sentence asked for by the Crown.

Mr Bailhache was sitting with Jurats Geoffrey Fisher and Jerry Ramsden.

– Advertisement –
– Advertisement –