AN arsonist put his neighbours’ lives in danger after he started a fire at his home when he was high on drugs.

Gareth Johnson, 47, was jailed for setting the blaze in Caerphilly county on May 16.

The defendant, who had suffered mental health problems, admitted arson reckless as to whether life was endangered.

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Johnson caused £3,000 worth of damage before firefighters were called to extinguish the flames, prosecutor Ffion Tomos said.

He had taken both class A and class B drugs before he started the fire, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

Kevin Seal, representing the defendant, asked for his client’s guilty plea to be taken into account.

Judge David Wynn Morgan told Johnson, of Milton Place, Machen: “Your abuse of class A drugs was a contributing factor to your offence but it isn’t mitigation, it is an aggravating factor

"You used, in order to set a fire, an accelerant which increased the danger to other people.

“The only mitigation is that you pleaded guilty.

“A custodial sentence is inevitable.

“You might in your present state of sobriety reflect that other people have been put to expense to put right the damage that your criminal actions on this particular day occasioned.”

He was jailed for three years.