A York man was ordered to pay £5,000 by York Crown Court today after being found guilty of an arson attack on a city pub.

Graeme Leith, 31, of Almond Grove, New Earswick, was found guilty of arson at the Yearsley Grove pub, Huntington, on January 18 this year, after he was told to leave following a fight.

Judge James Spencer QC said: "You were lucky. Anyone who started a fire like you did out of hurt pride, would normally be sent to prison."

Leith was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,000.

Leith had denied committing one count of arson, one of committing arson with intent to endanger life, and another of committing arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

Earlier in court, Leith's wife, Karen, told how her husband was told by landlord Steven Parker to leave the pub after Leith was involved in a fight.

She said Mr Parker was within his rights to ask them to leave. Her husband did not get nasty, but said the pub would lose a valued customer.

They waited for five to ten minutes outside for a taxi.

She denied her husband went back into the pub to start a fire in the toilets.

Forensic expert John Gillespie had earlier claimed to the court that Station Officer Jane Proud, who told the court on Tuesday the fire was started deliberately, spent an "insufficient" amount of time investigating the fire.

He said: "Someone sitting on the toilet who was drunk and attempting to light a cigarette could have been sloppy enough to make contact with the paper.

"A deliberate cause of fire has to be a possibility, but I feel it could have been an accident."

But Judge Spencer said that if someone had done that, they would have known immediately. Mr Gillespie agreed.

Judge Spencer told the jury insufficient evidence meant they only had to decide a verdict on the charge of arson.

Updated: 15:07 Thursday, August 01, 2002