A MEIRIONNYDD plumber has been jailed after a court heard how he launched an arson attack to try and destroy an expensive biofuel heating system he had installed at a holiday homes project at a Dolgellau farm.

Defendant Robert Euros Jones, 25, had promised his customer thousands of pounds worth of returns.

Mold Crown Court heard how the claims were exaggerated, and he had failed to register the system to receive the government RHI payments.

He also wanted to cover up the fact that he had removed the serial numbers from the boiler, and a second one which he installed, because he had used the same documentation for both.

Mr Jones of Llyn Tegid, Llanuwchllyn near Bala, admitted arson at Penmaenucha Farm, Penmaenpool, Dolgellau, an earlier burglary there where he stole the keys, together with fraud and false representation charges.

He was jailed for two and a half years.

An investigation revealed that he had installed another biomass boiler in Bala which was said to be dangerous, and forged the documentation for it.

Judge Niclas Parry said it was serious offending which involved a breach of trust placed in him by a decent hard-working farming family who wanted to support his local business.

He became a family friend and they trustingly handed over large sums of money to him.

“You failed in your duty of care to them and slowly but surely made serious attempts to cover up your failings and committed more and more serious offences,” the judge told him.

“You knew in your heart that you had misled the family holding yourself out to be an expert and able to say what the annual financial benefits would be, which were significantly short of the true mark,” the judge added.

The defendant had misled a second customer, and removed serial numbers from both boilers.

In order to carry out his plan he burgled the farm and stole keys and then returned with a blow torch and an accelerant in the early hours and set fire to the building containing the installation.

If he had been successful it would have been truly catastrophic because of the amount of wood pellets in the boiler.

Read the full story in next week’s Meirionnydd edition of the Cambrian News