Arsonist caught smirking at a CCTV camera after setting fire to shop full of customers jailed

Steven Caldwell, 49, set bags of charcoal alight inside a Nisa convenience store last May.

He went to the back right corner of the store with a lighter in his hand, crouching down to light the charcoal bags, police said.

He then smile up at the CCTV camera in the store before throwing paper onto the charcoal and fled the shop, police said.

Shopkeepers in the store in Grimsby were alerted to the fires after a customer smelt burning.

Caldwell, of Tunnard Street in the town, was charged with arson following the incident and appeared at Grimsby Crown Court for sentencing on Friday, June 23.

Speaking after the sentencing, DC Andrew Taylor said: "Luckily staff were promptly alerted to the fire and were able to extinguish it before anybody was seriously injured.

"This was a reckless attack and I hope that the outcome of the court case provides members of the community with the reassurance that we are there, in your communities, to support and take swift and positive action against those responsible for serious offences and bring them to justice."