A DISGRUNTLED employee who set fire to his boss’s van in a cocaine-fuelled frenzy has been jailed after turning himself in.
Construction worker Claudio Antonio Nascimento Andrade (32) torched the interior of the Ford Transit amid a row over unpaid wages.
The Royal Court was told that Andrade injected a gram of cocaine half an hour before starting the fire in the vehicle, which had been sitting outside a property that was under construction.
Firefighters who attended initially told the vehicle’s owner that the blaze could have caused by a fault with the battery.
Andrade’s crimes came to light the next day when he attended the police station and admitted starting the fire telling officers that his employer “owed him a month’s worth of wages”. He cited a £3,000 figure, despite only having worked at the company for a short time.
Andrade had been working for AJB Construction for about two weeks when his employer needed a company van that Andrade had taken and failed to return the keys.
When Andrade could not be contacted, his employer had a spare key made for £350 in order to access the van and Andrade agreed to contribute to the cost.
However, a week later, on 17 May 2026, Andrade set the van alight, the court heard.
Unbeknownst to him, the property’s owners were visiting the building and noticed smoke coming from the van, said Crown Advocate Emma Hollywood, prosecuting.
They called the Fire Service, and the fire was extinguished “without further issue”, she said.
Crown Advocate Hollywood said the fact that it was a “revenge attack”, the drugs, and the risk of the fire spreading, made the offending more serious.
She said: “In light of the quick response of the emergency services, the damage can be described as low-level.”
The Probation Service said he had “no remorse for his actions” and he was at high risk of reconviction, the court was told.
But, Advocate Hollywood said Andrade deserved credit for his early guilty plea and for handing himself in. She moved for a two-year jail sentence.
Advocate Lucy Marks, defending, said her client “felt a sense of panic” and the next morning was left to reflect on his actions.
She said that Andrade had written a letter of remorse and said he had been in a “visibly emotional and distressed” when he realised how serious his actions were.
And she said a “very significant” head injury as a child had left Andrade with difficulties with emotional regulation and impulse control.
Delivering the court’s sentence, the Bailiff Robert MacRae, presiding, said: “If the fire had taken hold, the court may have been considering other victims of your offending today. And it is a matter of chance the fire did not take hold and cause further damage
“This was a serious offence. Setting fire to a vehicle belonging to your employer in the vicinity of a home which, although you did not know it, was occupied at the time.
“The consequences cold have been very serious.”
Andrade was jailed 18 months.
The Bailiff was presiding with Jurats Cornish and Berry.
