A 12-year-old fire-starter destroyed a supermarket's entire stock and caused £375,000 damage by sparking a blaze with a cigarette lighter he found.

Magistrates at Batley and Dewsbury Magistrates' Court, who sentenced the Gomersal boy to a 12-month supervision order, heard he lit a fire in a bin at the Co-op store and smoke filtered in through an extractor fan.

Smoke damaged stock worth £125,000 and the fire caused £250,000 worth of damage to the newly refurbished building.

The youngster had found the cigarette lighter beside a barbecue while trespassing in gardens on January 23.

After lighting and stamping out grass fires in fields, the 12-year-old and a group he was in moved on to a Co-op supermarket and filling station in Oxford Road, Gomersal.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, ignited a bin after scaling a barbed wire fence.

The fire spread into the store through an extractor fan.

Firefighters who dealt with the fire at around 6pm that evening said the blaze could have spread to nearby petrol pumps.

Prosecutor Nick Worsley told the court: "He took some waste cardboard and set light to it before dropping it into the bin.

"He told police he didn't know why he had gone to the Co-op and he said he'd done nothing about the fire which he knew was still burning in the bin."

Mr Worsley said the boy had told his parents about the blaze who contacted the police - but he claimed someone else was responsible.

After being interviewed by police and admitting his guilt he said the boy "felt sadness and remorse for his actions."

Fred Rutherford, defending, said the boy was "not perfect" but his parents were doing all they could to keep him at school.

He said: "His parents did absolutely the right thing in assisting the police investigation. They are thoroughly embarrassed by the whole thing.

"I am confident this will be the first and only occasion he appears before these courts."

The youngster's parents were bound over by the court to ensure their son did not commit any criminal acts during the next year.

Neither the Co-op nor the parents would comment about the case.

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