A SCHOOLBOY arsonist is having to pay a £2,000 bill for the fire that caused thousands of pounds damage to a Co-op store, York Youth Court heard.

The boy, who earns £16 a week, may also face further legal action from the Haxby shop's insurers after he was convicted of setting fire to wooden pallets and plastic bags piled up near its rear doors.

Earlier this month, the court was told that he flicked a lighted cigarette end on to the heap on August 13, last year, causing a blaze which nearly destroyed the store's armour-plated double delivery doors, as well as damaging windows and guttering.

He was part of a group of boys who told some girls about the fire.

Asked by another boy about the fire a few days later, he had laughed and described what he had done.

Prosecutor Vivienne Walsh said that although other boys had been present at the store, this particular boy was the one responsible for recklessly starting the fire.

Today, he is starting a two-year supervision order and his mother is starting a three-month parenting order. She was also bound over for 12 months.

Because the boy is under 16, the justices ordered that she should pay £2,000 compensation to the shop's insurers. But the family's solicitor, Philip Brown, said: "(The boy) will be responsible for that payment. His mother will be recouping payment from him."

Earlier, he had told the court that the boy earned £16 a week from a Saturday job and his mother had given details of her financial affairs.

The boy, who comes from the north side of York, denied arson, but was convicted at a trial earlier this month. He was charged with causing £30,000 damage, but the insurers only asked for £15,586 compensation, and the court by law could not order the boy's mother to pay more than £5,000.

Mr Brown, urging the court not to make a compensation order, said it was not a simple matter. Three boys had originally been charged with the offence, but the case against the other two was dropped on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

The insurance company could make a civil claim for compensation for the fire, he added.

The boy told the court he was sorry for what he had done and admitted that he had not been fair to his family by dragging them through the court.

His mother said that she had already imposed her own punishment by grounding him and restricting his liberty and she felt he had learned his lesson.

Updated: 12:32 Wednesday, May 29, 2002