A man who attempted to start a fire outside the home of a Banff couple was caught after police followed a set of white footprints on the ground.
Damian Kucharski, 41, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted getting drunk and initially setting his sofa ablaze, which spread to other parts of his property.
As police were putting out the fire at his flat, Kucharski walked across town and started a second fire in a wheelie bin outside a couple’s home.
Police initially treated Kucharski as a victim until they received reports that he had been shouting and raving to a local man that he was going to burn his house down.
When CCTV was examined, it showed Kucharski walking out of his flat with smoke billowing at his back and the smoke alarm sounding.
CCTV shows Kucharski leaving burning building
Fiscal depute Kirsty Martin told the court that the emergency services were alerted to a fire at Kucharski’s flat on Duncan Street, Banff, during the early hours of April 19 last year.
Despite some superficial damage to the property where Kucharski lived, none of the other flats in the block were affected.
Kucharski was located by police and found to be intoxicated and he was initially treated as a witness.
However, it soon emerged that Kucharski had been heard to threaten to burn down the house and works van of another man in the area.
Fire chiefs’ assessment of the blaze was that it had been started deliberately.
Reports also began to coming in stating that Kucharski had been seen threatening a man while intoxicated.
He had been outside the man’s home while covered in white paint and acting erratically, police were told.
The CCTV footage from earlier that night showed Kucharski walking into his own property “angry, drunk and upset” prior to the fire starting.
Shortly afterwards he is seen leaving the flat with smoke billowing from the building and the smoke alarm sounding.
Second blaze started
Police noted that no one else was seen entering or exiting the property.
It was determined that the source of the fire was a sofa within Kucharski’s flat and it had been covered in white paint.
The court was told that as fire crews battled the fire at Kucharski’s property, he walked to the home of the man he had previously threatened and set fire to a wheelie bin outside the house.
White footprints were found leading from Kucharski’s flat to the site of the second fire.
When interviewed by police Kucharski denied knowledge of starting any fires and said he remembered nothing due to the level of his drunkenness.
In the dock, Kucharski pleaded guilty to two charges of wilful fire-raising.
He also admitted one count of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
Accused is ‘grateful’ to fire service
Defence solicitor Stuart Beveridge told the court that his client had a difficult background due to his family having to flee organised crime lords in Poland when Kucharski was a child.
“Mr Kucharski got involved in drug misuse and has struggled with that for about 20 years,” he said.
“He has absolutely no recollection of carrying out these offences, but he thinks it is perhaps due to the combination of emotional turmoil and being intoxicated – but he does not remember doing it.
“Mr Kucharski appreciates that this is an extremely serious matter and he is grateful to the fire service for arriving so promptly and putting out the fire quickly.”
Sheriff Philip Mann described Kucharski’s behaviour towards the couple as “extremely unpleasant and threatening”.
“This could also have had disastrous consequences for the people who live in the other flats,” the sheriff said.
“This sequence of criminal behaviour is concerning and serious.”
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Mann made Kucharski, of Clergy Street, Macduff, subject to a community payback order with supervision for 18 months and ordered him to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.
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