A FORMER world champion powerboat racer is today beginning a five-year jail sentence after admitting plotting a £1million blaze which devastated a Suffolk Business Park.
A FORMER world champion powerboat racer is today beginning a five-year jail sentence after admitting plotting a £1million blaze which devastated a Suffolk Business Park.
Jeremy Peachment, 38, of Rushbrooke Lane, Bury St Edmunds, was jailed for five years after admitting to conspiracy to commit arson following a massive fire at Risby Business Park in May 2001.
He was also sentenced to three years for conspiracy to defraud an insurance company, to run concurrently.
His co-defendant and father-in-law, 64-year-old Robin Hurst, of Russell Baron Road in Fornham St Martin, was also jailed for three years in respect to the insurance fraud.
At Bury St Edmunds Crown Court yesterday , Judge Gareth Hawkesworth was told Peachment hired a man to start the fire at the park, which was run by Hurst, after a planning wrangle with St Edmundsbury Borough Council spiralled out of control.
He handed £5,000 to an unknown accomplice who broke into the premises on May 24, 2001 and set fire to a smaller unit occupied by a toy manufacturer.
But the resulting blaze destroyed the family-run business park, causing around £1 million in damage and £2 million in losses.
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