A businessman and his personal trainer have been jailed for a total of 11 years following a fire attack on a car outside a policeman’s home on the outskirts of Dundee.
A judge told William Handy and Craig Guest: “It was designed to intimidate a police officer who had been carrying out his lawful duties.”
Lord Woolman said the deliberate blaze was calculated to violate the home of PC David Farr and his private life.
The judge said a victim impact statement prepared by the officer spoke eloquently about the effect of the crime on him and that the whole incident had left him shaken and scared and had affected his health and that he felt he could not protect his family.
Lord Woolman said it was fortunate that the fuel tank did not explode and no one was injured.
He jailed former soldier Guest for six years after he ignited petrol poured on to the car which was parked at the officer’s home in the Ballumbie area.
The judge sentenced Handy to five years’ imprisonment at the High Court in Edinburgh after Guest was recruited to carry out the fire-raising and told him: “You were the architect of this pernicious crime.”
Guest, 32, of Nelson Street, Dundee, had earlier admitted wilfully setting fire to the car on June 23 in 2014 and Handy, 54, of Middlebank Holding, Errol, in Perthshire, was found guilty of the same charge after a trial.
The court heard that in early 2014 Handy believed the police were waging “an unfair campaign of harassment” against him and he tracked down the addresses of officers, including Mr Farr, online.
Guest was acting as a personal fitness trainer to Handy and Handy passed the officer’s address to him and claimed he was being hounded.
The constable lived with his wife and infant daughter in a quiet residential street but was wakened in the early hours of the morning by the sound of a car alarm. When they went to the window they saw the car ablaze. It was written off.
DNA linked the fire to Guest and he later confessed during a police interview.
The court heard Guest had written a letter stating that he was “completely ashamed of myself” and that he was in “a desperate place” at the time of the offence.
Mark Stewart QC, for Handy, said: “He maintains his position of innocence.” He added that Handy had never previously served a custodial sentence.
