A TREGARON man threatened to burn down his ex-partner’s home with her inside in a row over money.

Stephen Waldron, 30, admitted three charges of sending offensive or menacing messages via a public communication network on 4 March.

Prosecutor Rhian Jones said Waldron had sent threats by text messages and on Facebook.

Ms Jones said Waldron had sent the messages after his ex-partner had said she couldn’t give him money he’d asked for as she didn’t have enough.

Waldron had reacted angrily to that and sent an initial message saying that he was going to set fire to her home, before following it up with another message making the same threat and saying that he would burn the property down with his ex-partner inside.

He also posted on Facebook that he was planning to set fire to things and said “goodbye people”, which led to his ex-partner’s landlord to contact the police.

When officers spoke to Waldron’s ex-partner she said that he was usually “all mouth” but said she had never seen him so angry and was concerned he may carry out the threat.

After his arrest Waldron, of Milwyn House in Tregaron, said he had been “stupid” in sending the messages, but never had any intention of carrying out the threat and had been trying to get a reaction out of his ex-partner.

Defending Waldron, Katy Hanson said he had asked his ex-partner for money as his benefits were still being paid to her at that time, but said that he realised that sending the threatening messages was stupid.

She said: “He immediately admitted it was incredibly stupid. It was quite clear he felt terrible about what he had done.

“He realises that what he said was stupid. They were stupid things to say, but he had no intention of going through with them.”

Magistrates said they wanted a pre-sentence report before deciding how to sentence Waldron and released him on conditional bail until a sentencing hearing on 12 April.