SIR – T Tordoff wonders if anyone has been prosecuted in recent years for destroying a car by arson (T&A, February 19).
In English law, the Criminal Damage Act (1971) abolished the common law crime of arson and created another criminal offence covering unlawful damage however caused.
There is also an aggravated offence of damaging property in which someone’s life is endangered, which, of course, could involve a car being set on fire.
Mr Tordoff says he can remember a time when this would have been seen as a very serious offence. It still is, having once carried the death penalty.
David Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford
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