MICHAEL Wright's 21st birthday celebrations ended in a trail of burned-out vehicles in Ripon after he had been plied with a cocktail of drugs including cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine, an hallucinogenic whose legal use is as an anaesthetic in both animals and humans, a court heard.

Wright's solicitor, Simon Crosfield, told Harrogate magistrates yesterday how the drugs, taken on top of drink, caused him to pass out - and three hours later, while in a trancelike state, to start fires which badly damaged three cars and a van.

Prosecutor Simon Ostler said two cars and a van were torched in Court Terrace, Ripon, in the early hours of Sunday, April 6, and another car went up in flames 400 yards away in King Street at around the same time.

Wright pleaded guilty to four charges of destroying a vehicle by fire. The court heard that on at least one occasion an accelerant had been used, and the damage totalled £9,162.

Wright, then living in Mill House, Ripon, and now back with his parents in King's Meadow, Sowerby, Thirsk, had been spotted shortly before the fires in a passageway linking Kirkgate with Court Terrace.

Mr Ostler said in Court Terrace, firefighters found a French-registered Citroen BX belonging to Pierre Verant and valued at £2,412 had been set on fire. Nearby, a Toyota MR2 owned by Michael Walker was damaged to the extent of £750 and a £1,000 Citroen van belonging to Boroughbridge Electrical Company Ltd was also blazing. In King Street, firefighters had to tackle a fourth fire, in Christopher Simpson's Fiat Punto, which suffered £5,000 damage.

When police interviewed Wright, he told them he had been annoyed after a row with his girlfriend, but Mr Crosfield said that was only part of the story. There had been a party for his 21st birthday at which all sorts of people - some known to Wright, some not - had turned up.

''He had a great deal to drink and at some point a concoction of drugs was administered to him and he passed out. He doesn't remember anything until 3.30am when he recalls being in a sort of trance,'' said Mr Crosfield.

After hearing Wright had a police caution for a similar offence, court chairman Mike Garnett ordered probation reports, and granted bail until July 7.

Updated: 10:37 Tuesday, June 17, 2003