A DRUG-FUELLED arsonist paid to carry out an attack on a house where a deaf family was asleep has been jailed for more than five years.

Michael Douglas was caught on CCTV pouring a gallon of petrol at the property in Manscombe Road, Allerton, Bradford, at 5am on May 26.

Douglas, 26, who is himself profoundly deaf, emptied the fuel can in front of the detached house and garage before his hooded accomplice set it alight, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Douglas was drunk and had been taking cannabis and cocaine.

The court watched film of the two fire raisers arriving at the house in a silver Ford Focus and starting the blaze, which flares up in front of the living room window and garage.

Prosecutor Giles Grant said Douglas, of Gwynne Avenue, Thornbury, Bradford, pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

He also admitted three offences of stealing car registration plates and using a vehicle without insurance or a driving licence.

He told the police he switched car registration plates to enable him to drive illegally and to buy fuel without paying for it.

Mr Grant said Douglas, a father of four, knew the householders and their son and daughter were all deaf.

He and his accomplice were paid £1,600 to pour petrol in front of the lounge window sill and garage doors and over the wheelie bins.

Both fled the scene without making any attempt to raise the alarm.

Mr Grant said a neighbour immediately dialled 999 and the fire service were quickly on the scene.

The family was roused but the fire had died down naturally and no one was harmed.

There was damage to the ground floor of the house, the garage and the bins.

After his arrest, Douglas named his accomplice and the man who paid him.

He told officers he was given £1,600 to "light the house".

Douglas revealed he had been asked to kidnap the mother and burn the front door and a vehicle, but he refused because there were children in the house and he knew family members were deaf.

Mr Grant told the court: "The fire was pre-planned for a criminal purpose, akin to a hit. It was done for payment."

"This is a cynical, deliberate, targeted offence for money."

In mitigation, Douglas's barrister, Mohammed Rafiq, said: "He isn't all bad. When he was asked to do more damage, there was a red line that he wasn't prepared to cross."

Mr Rafiq also said Douglas had been bullied while on remand in Leeds Prison. He was attacked with a snooker ball hidden in a sock.

He added: "He had no intention of injuring anybody and it is on that basis that he has pleaded guilty."

Judge Hatton jailed Douglas for a total of five years and three months.

He told him: "This was a planned event. Not something that arose on the spur of the moment. You knew there were people, including children, in the property, and you knew that the occupants were deaf.

"It was not your purpose, intention or desire to cause injury to any person but you were utterly reckless as to whether that would occur. You knew there was a risk and you were prepared to take it."

After the case, a spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: "This was a reckless and highly dangerous act, endangering the lives of a family in their own home.

"The defendant has fully admitted arson, saying that he poured petrol over the house with the intention of setting it on fire, and that he was asked to do this by another male who also paid him to carry out the attack.

“It is only by great good fortune that the family in the house were not harmed in any way.

"It takes little imagination to understand that the outcome could have been far worse, especially as the family involved were deaf and it would have been difficult to alert them if the fire had spread. The sentence handed down today is a clear indication of the seriousness with which the criminal justice system views this type of offending.”

A police spokesman said two other men, aged 27 and 28, were arrested on suspicion of arson as part of the investigation but later released without charge. Enquiries were continuing into the incident.